God Damn Apocalypse: Sunshine
by a paradise bird
Summary: Emma and Axel were set to marry next fall before the Rising broke out separating them. Now three years later, Emma along with her group find him in a hospital-turned-fortress protecting a vamp and a comatose woman, conflicting Emma on where Axel's loyalty's stand.
1. Chapter 1

_**Ted ran ahead**_ before turning around and waving everyone to follow him, "Come on! Not that much farther! This is the last block"

Everyone ran swiftly, but never forgetting to look back and look at their surroundings. Emma, of course, glanced back to her younger sister, Hannah, who jogged past her, eyes straight. She didn't know which she was more anxious to see; this facility that Ted swore would protect them or Axel. His bright blue eyes and cocky smile filled her mind as her heart skipped a beat as she swallowed down the soreness in her throat. She couldn't afford to get emotional now.

"Are we even sure this place exists?" Nicole asked, "I mean, Ted says he hasn't been here in six months. It could've all gone to shit now"

"You're also forgetting that Emma's fiancee is supposedly in there" Hannah mumbled, "Holed up for the past three years instead of looking for us"

"Shut up, Hannah!" Emma turned to her sister, "Ted said that they had orders to keep in position, Axel is loyal to the marines and you know that"

"Keep telling yourself that" Hannah muttered.

Emma turned and glared to her sister before Mohamad was heard from the back, "We got company!"

"Shit!"

"Let's go! Let's go!" John yelled as he started running.

Emma turned around as she heard screeches echoing down the street, "Where are they?"

"They're calling to each other" Ted shook his head, "These guys are getting smarter every week!"

"Come on! Let's go!" Cynthia yelled to the group.

"It won't matter to us if you keep screaming out so they can hear you" Hannah told the teenager.

"She's right" Ted nodded.

Emma rose up her gun and shot at the first feral she saw running out from behind the corner. It got hit in the arm and fell down, making Emma run back and create as much distance as she could between the vampires and her. If there was one thing she was thankful for, she was appreciative that Axel had shown her how to fire different types of guns during his breaks from touring. So far, it hasn't let her down in this goddamn apocalypse.

Ted had taken to the front as he led the group, making Sam and Mohamad with her in the back. Once Sam turned around and saw Emma was behind him, he offered up his arm and gently pushed her along with the group. Always never wanting a woman at the tail of the group.

"Thanks, Sam" Emma muttered, as if he could hear her.

She jumped over a crate and quickly glanced around, hearing the vampires gaining on them but not knowing where they were. This always frightened her whenever she was on the run with the group.

"I see the hospital!" Nicole shouted, "Come on! Run!"

Emma didn't have enough of a chance to get excited on who will be guarding the building as she ran to the door.

"Let us in! Please let us in! Open this door!" Cynthia yelled out.

"I am a United States marine and I have been ordered to guard this facility!" a familiar voice said, "I can't compromise my mission with this, I'm sorry"

"Open the door, marine, goddammit!" Hannah shouted before Emma could say anything.

Axel hesitated before he questioned, "Hannah?"

"Yes, it's me, asshole!" Hannah let out, "Open the door! We're gonna die out here!"

Emma glanced over to Hannah who gave a panicked look, a very few face exchanges she makes to Emma before the door swung wide open. Emma turned as everyone filed in within a matter of seconds. She swallowed nervously as Hannah ran past and slapped Axel on the shoulder, surprising him but not as much as he was when he noticed Emma. They just stood there, staring at each other as if it was a hallucination or something. Emma didn't know whether or not to hug him or run by him to get into shelter.

Axel looked past her and yelled, "Get down!"

Emma dropped to the floor as rounds of bullets were fired. She peeked out from behind a concrete and saw ferals were now running towards them. Emma forgot about her little reunion with her fiancee and ran inside as Axel yelled orders for John to come inside as well. She looked outside as she saw Axel was pinned down by a feral before Sam ran over and beat the beast down with a bat.

Once everyone was inside, Emma turned and went to the group and saw Hannah was sitting on the escalator. She briefly glanced up before she looked back down to her knife as John came in calling out to Wendy.

"There's nothing I can do about that, I'm sorry" Axel apologized.

"A woman is stuck out there" John yelled out, "She's gonna get torn apart by those things"

"Opening those doors will compromise our mission" Axel said but John was having none of it as he ran past and started to yank at the doors, Axel then butted him with the end of his gun, making Karen scream and Emma jump, "Everyone upstairs now… end of discussion"

 _ **Emma followed Axel**_ upstairs, just like he said but the way he acted with knocking John unconscious rubbed her the wrong way. The man only wanted to look for his wife, the woman he loved, and Axel decided to hurt him instead of help him. She couldn't help but glance at Hannah to see what her younger sister was thinking about but when she did, she wished she didn't. Hannah was looking at her like as if she was the one who had hit John. Emma looked at Axel's back as he continued to talk to Ted, no doubt catching up, but he didn't even glance or spoke to Emma since he saw her outside.

He led them to a wing where it looked like a makeshift military base. All different types of gadgets, canned foods, and ammo were lying around. Emma was barely taking it all in when she heard a big bang and snarling. She turned and noticed a vampire stuck in a cage and Axel running to stand in front of the locked room.

"Jesus! He's got a pet one!" Nicole shouted out.

"Is that the doc?" Ted asked.

"Yeah, she got bit" Axel sighed.

"Oh this ought to be good-" Mohamad mumbled.

"Hey! She was a part of this mission too, smart ass!" Axel let out before he scanned the crowd, "Anybody touches her I'll throw them off of the roof"

"She's been bit!"

"She's a vampire!"

"And what about this chick?" Nicole asked from off to the side.

Emma followed and noticed a woman lying on a table with what looked like heat bulbs aimed on her as Axel said, "This _chick_ doesn't exist as far as you're concerned. You understand me?"

"Yeah, I understand" Hannah said, "I understand that you've been protecting two women for three years; one a vampire and one a potato instead of looking for your fiancee"

Hannah turned to her sister, "How does that make you feel, Emma?"

Heat rose to her cheeks as tears brimmed her eyes, she turned to her sister and with gritted teeth she said, "Fuck off"

Emma roughly pushed her sister away from her and stormed out of the room as Axel called out to her, "Emma! Emma!"

 _ **It's safe to**_ say that Emma didn't sleep with the rest of the group; she was mad at her sister, embarrassed by Axel's actions, and even a little bit jealous of these two mystery women. Late at night, she heard someone walking around, her back was to the door but she heard the door open and stopped. Just in case, she kept her knife close but something told her that it was Axel and she was curious on what he was actually planning on doing. She waited until she heard him sigh and close the door. Tears filled her eyes as she sniffed and closed them to at least try and get some sleep.

The next day, Emma took this chance to walk around and get her bearings on the place when she heard dishes clattering on the floor. She was at first cautious before she head John scream out for someone to listen. She deeply inhaled and followed the commotion where it lead her to the pantry just as Axel blocked a pipe from coming down on his head and pinning John to the table.

"Enough!" Axel was saying, "Enough. Now, I get how you feel, I do, but there is nothing that we can do for her"

"Alright!" John screamed out.

"So we stay inside" Axel commanded.

"Alright" John said in a quieter voice.

"End of discussion" Axel said as he got up.

He walked out of the kitchen but stopped when he noticed Emma was standing outside of the hallway, "Hey"

"Hi" Emma cleared her throat, "He still wants to go out and find his wife?"

"Yeah, he's being a bit emotional" Axel waved in John's direction.

"I don't blame him" Emma said, "I mean that's what I would do… that's what I _did"_

"Emma-"

"Do you want to know how I was found?" Emma asked, "Ted found me; he recognized my face from a picture I gave you and I had this hope that you were out there looking for me, but now I see you were only playing babysitter over two other women"

Before Axel could say anything, Emma shook her head and walked away. Even though she moved her stuff to where everyone else was sleeping, that didn't mean she was in the mood for talking, especially to Hannah of all people. Luckily, it seemed pretty sensed and the only person who actually came close to a conversation was Sam who gave a small wave. Emma hoped that by the next day, she'll start feeling better about this and maybe contribute to the group more than she has, she didn't even know how to help out in a hospital-made-fortress.

"Incoming!" was the next thing she heard.

Emma jumped at the sound of gunfire as she ripped out her gun from under her mattress. She quickly checked the safety off and started to fire at the vampires already closing distance with her. She let out a yelp as one reached out to her but she thrust her gun up to its nose and roughly tossed it to the ground. It looked up and snarled at her when a body crashed down on it and stabbed it with a knife multiple times. Hannah quickly got off of the vampire and moved behind Emma as she continued to fire at them.

The sisters ran over to the other section as everyone tried to close the door but the vampires swarmed in. A vampire locked eyes on Emma and charged at her but she kicked him down and fired a round into his head. She turned and followed everyone around the corner to where the woman was sleeping.

She gasped when she realized the woman who was supposed to be comatose was now awake and stabbing a vamp with just a pen.

"Dylan!" she turned and took a look at everyone, "Who the hell are you?"

Seeing the woman suddenly drop down to the floor caused everyone a wide range of confusion. Not only that, she fought off three vampires by herself and with just a pen. Emma was about to clean when Axel told her to come downstairs to help check the front door with Ted. She didn't really see why she had to go but she went along anyways. Axel went over and only spent a couple of seconds before he said, "Nothing broken or busted"

"Shit" Ted cursed.

"They didn't just push their way in" Emma said, "At least I don't think they did"

Ted looked over to Axel, "How many of the others did you give the codes to this door?"

"Well, probably more than I should have" Axel sighed and waved his hand, "Except Emma for obvious reasons so she's in the clear. The black kid and the deaf guy on the other hand…"

"Look, if my bringing them here had anything to do with this, I'm sorry" Ted apologized, "I hate to say this but maybe we should toss 'em out right now while we still have the chance and the fire power"

"Yeah" Emma seemed surprised as Axel agreed, "Yeah, I hear ya"

"Well, we gotta protect Sleeping Beauty" Ted said.

Axel chuckled and shook her head, "I'm not so sure about that. She seemed pretty damn good at that on her own"

"Yeah, how about that, huh?" Ted cracked a dry smile.

"So… none of you knew that she could defend herself?" Emma asked, "Against them of all people?"

Axel exchanged a look before he sighed, "We were sent here just minutes before the rising happened, had no other orders but to sweep her up and take her back to the-"

"Base" Ted cleared his voice, "You know, military stuff. Don't ask, just do"

Emma slowly nodded her head, "Right… well those vamps came in looking for her which is going to scare a lot of people here"

"If they don't like it then they'll just have to leave" Axel shrugged.

"Oh, they won't" Emma shook her head, "Nicole is just a big cloud of negativity, John is still emotional over his wife, and Hannah will get more suspicious than ever"

"What about you?" Axel asked.

Emma took a step back as she tried to process what she just saw before she answered honestly, "I don't know what to believe anymore"


	2. Chapter 2

" _ **Didn't think**_ you would want to talk to me" Hannah said, "Much less sit next to me"

"Not with this mystery woman running about" Emma glanced behind her back.

Hannah huffed, "What? You scared?"

"You should be" Emma glared at her.

"That she can hold her own during a fight?" Hannah asked.

"Exactly" Emma said, "She's been in a coma for three years with barely any equipment that can keep her alive and yet she killed three of those things. She had no IV strung up to her so how is she staying hydrated. She seemed almost perfect at being brought up to speed with fighting. Not only that, Axel says he knows nothing about her. Says they were supposed to pick up a dead body or something"

"Body?" Hannah looked up.

"She didn't seem dead to me" Mohamad said as he walked over and sat down in front of them with Sam always in tow.

"But why with the secrets?" Emma pushed, "What is she?"

"Human, obviously" Hannah scoffed.

Emma turned to her, "She has to be something important, otherwise, Axel wouldn't have protected her all these years. Why does the military want her so badly?"

"You think your fiancee is hiding something from you?" Mohamad asked.

"Or are you just pissed that he's not being honest with you?" Hannah questioned, "He's always been that way, remember? Never wants to talk about missions and shit"

"Well, call me crazy, but I want to know what the hell is going on" Emma said, "Especially in an apocalypse like this"

Mohamad made a sound like he agreed as Sam made a motion with his hands like as if he agreed also. Emma looked over to Hannah who seemed always disinterested but gave a side nod as she rolled her eyes. Even her little sister had to admit that it was slightly off. She sighed as she looked around the group, knowing she wasn't the only one with these suspicions. But unfortunately for her, she was the only one close enough to Axel to start weeding them out.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Hannah asked, "Go talk to him"

"I can't now" Emma breathed out.

"I knew it" Hannah scoffed, "Even in an apocalypse, you can't talk to Axel about what is really bothering you"

Emma turned and was about to argue with her sister when gunshots rang from outside the room. The sound snapped the sisters out of the banter as Mohamad made a signal of gunshots. Usually that meant for the group to run the other way but in a locked hospital they had no choice but to run to the sound. Emma got up and quickly took out her own handgun and marched forward but cautiously.

"Are people fighting?" Hannah asked once they got within close range of hearing grunts and yelling.

"Hey! What's going on?" Mohamad yelled out.

Emma ran down the hall to see Axel cowering over his head, "Axel!"

She placed her hand on him as he glanced up and looked to her but then looked around. He saw the gun in her hand before he wrenched it and ran over to the hall. Mohamad and Sam just exchanged looks before they too started to run after him.

"Well, that was romantic" Hannah said from the side.

"Shut up"

"What?" Hannah asked, "Can't make a side comment?"

Emma turned and glared at her sister before Hannah brought her hands up in what looked like a surrender. Emma turned and ran a hand through her hair and shook her head.

"He clearly still cares for you" Hannah said, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken your gun"

"He took it because it was closest to him" Emma responded.

"Keep telling yourself that" Hannah shrugged, "By the way, when you were playing hide and seek, we caught up. Said despite his mission, he was happy to see us and all that crap. I told him how you were at work and I was volunteering there when this whole place went to shitshowville. He asked about mom, dad, and Olivia, of course, so I had to tell him how we tried finding them for nearly two months before giving up. Something you should've done with your fiancee and not me. I mentioned how Ted recognized you and he showed me the picture, or lack thereof, anyways. It's been so worn out that I could barely see you in the picture, Emma. The texture was so flimsy that I swore, it could've ripped at any moment. No matter what happened these three years, it's done. You got what everyone in the group always wanted; to be reunited with a loved one. In case you didn't know, not a lot of people have that anymore"

Emma looked over to Hannah who looked peeved but honest.

"Thanks" Emma nodded, "I'll work on it"

" _ **I'm sorry**_ about Ted" Emma said once everything seemed calmed down from the roof incident.

"Nah, it's alright" Axel waved off.

Emma picked at her sleeves, "But he was like a brother to you, wasn't he?"

"They all were" Axel leaned on the table.

"Yeah, I can imagine, spending three years and God knows how many on tour" Emma glanced to the others, "I didn't even see it out there. Ted was just using all of us"

"Probably us most of all" Axel looked up to her.

Emma nodded, "Me being your fiancee was a hopeful distraction"

"He didn't expect you to be pissed at me though" Axel shook his head with a smile on his face.

"For obvious reasons" Emma quickly sucked in a breath, "On both sides. I mean, one of the reasons why I loved you so much was because you were loyal to your country"

Axel hesitated before he asked, "Loved?"

Emma dropped her gaze down, "I had to keep saying that because I… I didn't know…"

"If I were alive or not" Axel sighed, "Is that why the engagement ring is gone?"

Emma glanced down before she said, "That was a mistake"

"What happened?" Axel asked.

"When this whole thing first started and food was scarce, I traded it for a bucket of food to get us by for three days" Emma said, "I kept telling myself that it was worth it but I've regretted it ever since"

"I'm glad you traded for food… that's smart to keep both you and your sister alive" Axel said.

" _Hello?! Anybody there?"_ a voice called out making both Axel and Emma turn, " _Anybody!"_

"Did you hear that?" Axel asked.

"Yeah"

" _Hello?"_

They exchanged a look one last time before Emma cautiously walked off and grabbed the nearest handgun on Axel's table as he took the rifle. He glanced back to her and watched as she checked the safety before he advanced on. Movement came from behind her as she looked over and noticed that Vanessa was slowly walking with them. No weapons, of course, but she chose to ignore that as she followed Axel. One by one, everyone of the group came together before Axel opened the door to see a small man covered in blood, cowering at the UV lights.

Quickly everyone walked over to him, weapons drawn and aimed at the man as he whimpered. He seemed familiar but she couldn't quite place where she's seen him last but there was only one place he could've come from if he was in this hallway.

"Please, help me" the man said but quickly pushed himself to the wall, "Please, please, please! Who are you? What's going on? Who are you people?"

" _ **One more**_ thing after a freaking other" Hannah shook her head.

"So not only she can heal herself but _turn_ people as well?!" Emma chimed with her sister, "Can you even buy this"

"I have to because it fucking happened" Hannah waved off, "I don't know, maybe we should ask that man what he meant"

Emma blocked her sisters way, "No, no way! You're not going anywhere near those two"

"What are you talking about?" Hannah asked, "You're not mom"

"Well, I'm the closest thing to mom as you'll ever get!" Emma shouted, "I don't know this woman and I don't trust her and her _abilities,_ okay? She turned a man human, what's to say she can't do the other way as well. I don't care if Axel is watching over her, you are not going to be in the same room with her for five minutes, you got me? This woman is dangerous!"

Hannah made her usual annoyed face but before she could respond, screaming was heard from outside. Since the youngest sister was the closest one to the window, she glanced out but then gasped and quickly ran out of the room. Emma walked over but immediately regretted it as she recognized Wendy being tied to a dying tree. Emma turned and ran for the roof as fast as she could as everyone else seemed to follow suit. Her stomach turned as she watched John lean over to get a better view of the commotion.

"John! John!" Wendy screamed.

"Wendy!" John hollered.

A vamp turned and started to hit Wendy with a chain as she screamed out in pain. Emma cringed at the impact, almost as if she could feel it herself. She glanced over to Axel who seemed to already be counting strategies on how to save the woman. Emma looked back down to the swarm that was around Wendy as they enjoyed hurting her.

"No!" John screamed.

"We'll stop when you give us the dead girl" a vamp said.

"Give her over" John demanded.

"Back off" Axel challenged.

"I'm going" Vanessa said as she walked over to the stairs, "I have to go down there"

"No! Vanessa!" Axel turned to her.

John took this moment to knee Axel in the groin and leave him cowering on the floor. Emma ran over to Axel and knelt down beside him as John ran over and grabbed Vanessa. She watched as John went back to the ledge and hollered back to the vampires down below.

"I got her! I'll trade!" John announced.

"Back away from her!" Axel demanded as he got up and aimed his rifle at John, "Now!"

"I'll throw her over!" John screamed out.

"No! Alive!" the vamp yelled back.

A gunshot rang out as Emma looked over to John who had a gun on Vanessa, it took her a couple of seconds to realize that he wasn't the one who pulled the trigger. She turned and looked to Axel who had his rifle still aimed downwards, Emma followed the gaze to a limp Wendy on the tree.

"Axel… what have you done?" Emma breathed out as she fell to her knees.

"You killed her, you bastard!" John turned and charged over to Axel.

Axel stood his ground and fought John off until Sam came up and pulled John off of him.

"Your wife was dead the second you lost track of her out there!" Axel told him, "You left her behind, that's on you"

John charged at Axel again but he threw the man to the side before John knocked into a makeshift tower. Axel diverted his attention to the machine and ran to it but it already fell over the ledge. Axel yelled out in frustration as everyone on the roof watched him in confusion.

"That's great" Axel fumed, "We now have three hours to live!"

" _ **That's a**_ real stand up guy, you got there" a voice said from behind her.

Emma turned and noticed Cynthia was shooting daggers with her eyes, "Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said" Cynthia took a step closer, "How can you possibly be with a guy who just shot and killed John's wife?! He's a murderer"

"And if what the newly human is saying is true, then so are you" Emma spat out, "We've killed hundreds of vamps, maybe even more… who's to say that that man is right and Vanessa can turn them back?"

"So now you're taking her side in all of this?" Cynthia asked.

"No…" Emma stopped, "I don't know… but I wasn't the one who shot John's wife"

"No… you're just the woman whose sleeping with him" Cynthia countered.

Emma got up just as Hannah appeared out of nowhere and stood dangerously close to Cynthia. She wasn't aware of Hannah being there but seeing the woman made her take a step back from her, especially when she noticed that she had Sam's bat in her hands.

"You got a problem with my sister?" Hannah challenged.

"No, it's just that-"

"Then walk!" Hannah took a step closer as she got in her face again, "Or else Axel's not going to be the only person to put a bullet through someone's head today"

Cynthia looked over to Emma before looking back to Hannah as she turned and quickly took her leave. Hannah watched as the teenager hightailed it out of the room, probably to Nicole who would love to hear this. Once she was gone, Hannah turned to Emma and swung Sam's bat over her shoulder.

"No one deserves to be a bitch to you but me"

Emma couldn't help but scoff, "Thanks"

"Got nothing better to do" Hannah turned as Sam came up and pointed to his bat, "Thanks, Sam"

He made a signal as Mohamad said, "Anytime"

 _ **Emma was reading**_ a book near the Doc's cage when the lights above her suddenly died down as the hallway turned dark as well. She froze in fear as she realized that the three hours that Axel had warned are now up.

"That's it" John was heard in the dark, "We're all gonna die"

Loud banging and inhuman screaming was heard from down below as the feeders must've been waiting for the UV lights to die out. Emma quickly got up and looked to everyone in the room.

Mohamad was the first to speak, "Grab your shit! Grab your shit!"

"Let's go!" John commanded.

Emma grabbed her gun and checked the clip, she sucked in a hiss as she ran over and grabbed an extra clip from Axel's table. She ran after everyone as they all stopped on the escalator, not wanting to be the first one to go head to head with the vamps outside. She aims her gun at the door just as the new man, Flesh, walked down the stairs.

"What are you doing?" Emma called out.

"Don't let them in!" Nicole shouted as he walked past her.

"Let him go" John said, "If he dies, it's good riddance"

"Nikolai" Flesh said as he opened the door, "Recognize me?"

"What the hell is he doing?" Hannah asked no one in particular.

Flesh turned to his arm and did something to it before turning to the vamp, "I bleed. I'm human. The dead woman turned me, she turned me back"

Emma lowered her gun as she watched in amazement how even the vampires were stunned at what Flesh was showing them.

"Touch me" he took a step but they all jumped back, "Come on, come on, take a bite. You wanna feel again to suffer from the blood you drank then come inside cause the dead woman will turn you. She'll turn you all"

Slowly the vampires turned and walked away, making Emma take a sigh of relief that she didn't really know she was holding in. She glanced over to Hannah who seemed just as surprised as her.

"Well, he's got my stamp of approval" Emma mumbled.


	3. Chapter 3

Emma slowly followed as Vanessa carried Wendy's dead body through the building. She watched as the woman gently placed her on the table that she had called her bed for the past three years. A sniff came from her left as John trudged in, hands cupping his mouth, probably still in shock over seeing his wife dead. Emma still couldn't wrap her mind around it, they've made it through hell together, only for another man to shoot her. A Marine who swore to protect his country.

Vanessa left the room and walked with her head down, to avoid everyone's gaze as she took her leave. She must've felt Emma staring at her because she looked up and met her gaze. Emma hesitated before she gave a nod, still not knowing what that meant to her but Vanessa seemed to appreciate it before she moved on. She deeply inhaled and crossed her arms over her chest as she took in John crying over his wife just a moment longer.

The lights suddenly flickered on, blinding Emma for a moment before she remembered Axel went down to switch on the generator. She turned and quickly ran over to the entrance where Mohamad and Sam were coming up, out of breath. Her eyes went to Axel as he was the last to come up with his rifle up in the air.

"We ran into a little bit of trouble" Axel explained, "But the UV light's back up"

Emma nodded and was about to leave, "Hey, uh… can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure" Emma turned to him, "What's up?"

"Earlier today, when I shot John's wife… you were shaken up and I completely understand why" Axel waved out his hand in the direction of the others, "I would've gone postal if that happened to you"

"The same way John did" Emma nodded, "He will never forgive you for this, you know that, right?"

"Oh, I know and I don't want him to" Axel sighed, "But I had to do it to protect you"

"Protect me?" Emma asked, "Don't you mean protect Vanessa?"

Axel shook his head, "Sometimes it's not always about the mission… I shot her so that way the vamps don't come inside to try and get to you. Sure, Vanessa was a close second too but you have to understand that even if it wasn't Vanessa that they were after, I still would've put a bullet through Wendy's head"

"Wow… um, that's very… weird and assuring way to put things" Emma said honestly.

"So are we good on the reason why I did it?" Axel asked cautiously.

Emma nodded, "Just give me time"

"Okay"

Axel walked up to her with his hand over her head but stopped when Emma flinched, it wasn't because of Axel and his explanation. In this world, you learn to not trust people with bodily contact as he quickly understood.

Emma barely made it back into the main room after her shower when Hannah immediately ran up to her.

"Vanessa went into the cage and bit the vampire and now she's dead!" Hannah quickly informed.

"What?!" Emma let out as she ran down the hall.

"Yeah, I can't believe it myself" Hannah responded.

Emma turned the corner and stopped as he watched Axel cradling the dead woman's body with Vanessa sitting in the corner. Under normal circumstances, she would be pissed and storm out of the room, but this was Axel's last friend for six months. She crouched down as Axel looked over to her with tears in his eyes. Emma swallowed and cupped her mouth, almost feeling close to crying as well. She's always avoided the vampire but seeing Axel this close to her made her sad.

A cough suddenly erupted from the woman as a gasp was sounding throughout the room. Emma jumped back and watched as Axel straightened her up and patted her on the back. Emma exchanged a look from Hannah as she gripped both sides of her head, not knowing what to think as of this point. She glanced over to Vanessa who looked just as surprised as everyone else in the group.

She wished that that was the only thing that was weird to happen in the hospital but weird was just barely getting started. It was bad enough that Emma was still waking up in the middle of the night just to check her surroundings, but to have to be woken up by screams was a different thing. She quickly went to where the screaming was and noticed everyone was staring straight ahead.

"What happened?" Emma asked.

"Ask him, he's the one that found her" John nodded to Flesh.

Emma turned and gasped, "Jesus Christ"

Emma cupped her mouth as she saw Cynthia was strung up in the middle of the escalator, swinging side to side and already pale as a ghost. She immediately got sick and turned away, not even wanting to think that Cynthia would take her own life.

Hours later while everyone was in the prayer room, Emma stood over Cynthia to take her all in before slowly untying her shoes.

"Yeah?" a voice came from the side, "Gonna wear the dead girl's shoes?"

Emma gave a side nod, "Well, unless the feeders have reopened JC Penny I'm just being practical. I mean, you are going to throw her down the cute, right?"

Axel seemed to sense what she was saying, "She deserves a proper funeral, wish I could give that to her"

"Wish I gave my parents and Olivia one" Emma mumbled.

"Come on, Emma, you don't even know if they're still alive" Axel said.

"We looked for them since this whole thing began" Emma turned to him.

"You and your sister are alive" Axel straightened up, "And so am I, you gotta have faith that your parents and older sister are too. Especially now that we know that Vanessa can turn people"

"Which makes her dangerous" Emma said.

"So you're with them too?" Axel asked, "The _I hate Vanessa_ crew?"

"No, but what makes you think that those vamps won't came back for her?" Emma asked.

"I don't" Axel said, "That's why I need you on my side with this. I can't fight those feeders and this group at the same time"

Emma sighed, "I am on your side"

"You mean that?"

"Of course, I do" Emma nodded.

"Good" Axel straightened up, "Because it would suck to know you couldn't see where I was coming from"

"You're a Marine… I'm not supposed to know, remember?" Emma said with a hint of a smile.

"Seems like you and Axel are getting closer now" Hannah said.

"Yeah, we're working on it" Emma stated.

"Good, you guys were cute" Hannah said, "In an annoying way, really. I remember when you used to get letter from him and get all excited. Or that first Thanksgiving he was over and you couldn't keep your eyes off of him. Made me want to throw up"

"Thanks" Emma laughed.

"But I didn't realize how much I missed it until you guys were reunited. No hugging, or kissing, not even holding a decent conversation" Hannah tossed a pistachio shell to the side, "It made me worry that you guys were done for. This world, like everything else, killed it"

"No, it's far from over" Emma sighed, "Axel would've quit that easily… he's just giving me space"

"Just make sure I'm not in the same room when you guys have sex" Hannah remarked.

Emma scoffed when an alarm blared overhead. Instinctively, she reached out and grabbed onto her sister who had taken a step back. She tensed up before she noticed a light blaring at the top of the ceiling.

"Feeders" Hannah tensed up.

"No… fire" Emma said.

They exchanged looked and went over to where the bunkers were just as Axel jogged around with a fire extinguisher. He checked some doors and glanced to the sisters as Emma shook her head, telling him she hadn't seen a fire. Hannah then took off in a run down the next hall as everyone followed her to the men's bathroom before Axel came in and put out a small fire in a trashcan.

"It was deliberately set" Axel told the group.

"Why?" Hannah asked.

"To lure us all here" Axel charged out, "Vanessa"

"She's long gone by now" Emma said.

"I gotta find her" Axel commented.

"No, you don't" Emma took a step toward him, "Axel, whatever your mission was, it's over"

"Until I get new orders" Axel responded.

"From who?" Emma asked, "The marines? They're all dead"

Axel looked at her before turning to march out as Emma trailed after him, "Look, you walk out there, maybe we're all dead too by the time you get back. Is that what you want?"

He stopped and turned to look at her, "Doc told me. So for once, don't think about Vanessa and think about a killer running around here. Only you can figure out who it is"

"Fine, I'll stay" Axel sighed and put down his gear, "But you need to keep this in between all of us until we figure this out"

"I don't want to be the one to break the news" Emma scoffed, "The less I know, the better"

"Exactly" Axel said, "Let me take care of it"

Nicole straightened up, "What? No, no, no. We all saw her hanging there"

"It was murder" Axel repeated.

"You don't know that" Nicole said.

"Yeah, we do" Axel said, "Doc examined the body"

"Her?" John got to his feet, "You gotta be kidding me?"

"Why would I lie?" Doc asked.

"For all we know, you're the one who killed Cynthia" John challenged.

"You're a real son of a bitch" Doc glared at him.

"We should have dealt with you before you turned!" John yelled back.

"Enough, sit down" Axel stepped in, "She was strangled, staged to look like a suicide. The question is who?"

Everyone stayed quiet, just as Emma suspected, no one was ready to wave up their hand and announced, "I'm the killer!" anytime soon.

"Him" Nicole pointed to the man behind her, "Flesh. He- he found her"

"I was sleepwalking" Flesh argued, "That's where I woke up. It wasn't me"

John shook his head, "We're overlooking the obvious. I'm telling you it was that black kid who conveniently isn't here anymore"

"Oh, so it's either me or the other black person" Doc challenged as Sam went up to John and started to sign to him.

"What?" John snapped, "I never trusted that kid!"

"Will you get out of my face?!" John screamed out, "I don't understand this shit!"

John made an offensive sound and sign to him which caused Sam to grab him and slam him on the table. Axel walked over and patted Sam but wasn't putting too much force behind letting Sam let him go.

"Okay, I'm sorry" John said in a quieter tone, "I didn't mean it"

When Sam let go, John muttered, "Maybe it was him"

Emma rolled her eyes as she said, "We can't just pin it on Mohamad. It could be any one of us in this room"

Everyone looked around cautiously at one another. Hannah took out her knife and moved her seat back so her back was to the wall. Axel sighed and ran a hand through his hair, finding it more frustrating to deal with them. But they had more pressing matters to deal with as Emma felt a heavy heart for Cynthia. They had to bury her properly, well as properly as they could in an apocalypse.


	4. Chapter 4

Emma folded up Cynthia's clothes and placed them on her bunker. Before, she was thinking rational, but now she didn't really know what to think. After seeing the "funeral" that she and the others put for her, she didn't really want her clothes after all. She wiped at her eye and turned but suddenly stopped when she noticed that Axel was standing behind her. She didn't know how long he's been there but judging by how he was looking from the clothes to her, he's seen enough.

"You alright?" Axel asked.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine" Emma sniffed.

Axel cocked his head to the side, "Are you sure?"

Emma paused and looked up to Axel before she scoffed, "No, I don't think I've been alright since this whole thing has started"

"I know" Axel nodded before he said, "Me too"

Emma looked to him as she noticed this was the first time she's ever heard him confess anything to her since she's gotten there, "Do you think the world will ever be the same again?"

Axel scoffed, "I hoped so in the beginning, but then as the days turned to weeks, then months, then years… it's just the world we live in now"

Emma fidgeted, "I'm glad though… that we eventually found each other… even though I might not express it enough-"

"No, no, I get that, I really do" Axel dismissed her, "I've been cooped up in here for three years while you were out there. God only knows what you've been through just to get here"

Emma paused, "Axel… why didn't you look for me?"

Axel seemed taken back from the question but a beeping sound off to the side indicating someone was at the front door. He glanced to the sound before looking over to Emma, she knew that it was Vanessa who was in his mind right now. So she made the decision for him and started down the hallway to go see Vanessa and Mohamad. What she wasn't expecting was to see a group of strangers piling around the bottom floor.

"What the hell?" Emma said.

"Please, we need a doctor!" a man said as she walked past him.

"Mohamad" Emma called to the teenager, "You let them in here?"

"I didn't have any other choice" Mohamad told her.

"You should've left them out there" Axel said in a low voice.

"Yeah, instead we left her" Mohamad retorted back.

"Wait a second" Emma waved out her hand, "You were with Vanessa just now?"

"Yeah" Mohamad nodded.

Axel peered out of the surroundings, "Shit! I gotta get her"

"No, she's miles away" Mohamad called out as Axel left the room.

"Let him go" Emma breathed out, "It's his mission, afterall"

"Dude, there were vamps out there calling to each other. They wanted her, Emma" Mohamad paused, "She wanted me to leave and lead the others. I had no choice"

"I know… it might've been better that way" Emma turned and looked back outside.

Emma walked inside the bunkers room and nearly collided with a woman who nodded quickly before walking away. She glanced back to them as she realized that there were ten total in this whole group. John was sitting in the corner with the leader as everyone else seemed to be getting comfortable with their food. She knew right away that Axel wasn't going to like it the second he walks in. Emma found her sister who was sitting with her arms crossed and practically scowling at everyone.

"Who the hell do they think they are?" Hannah demanded.

"What do you mean?" Emma glanced back.

"They're acting like it's Disneyland up in here" Hannah turned back, "That or a free-for-all food buffet"

"I know" Emma turned to her, "Has any of them tried talking to you?"

"Nope"

"Something doesn't seem right" Emma mused.

"You figured that one out right now?" Hannah asked, "I wonder how long our food supplies gonna last"

Axel came in and did a double take at the people around their food.

"Hey, put the food back, right now!" Axel hollered at them.

"At least Axel can still scare the crap out of those people" Hannah smiled, "I wonder when he's going to start making people do military exercises for food? Hopefully he doesn't start with us"

"I want you guys to keep an eye out while I'm gone" Axel ordered the sisters, "Keep a weapon on you at all times, understood? I don't trust them"

"You never trusted anyone, even before the apocalypse" Hannah told him, "But yeah, I see your point"

"Same here" Emma turned to him, "You be careful out there"

"Wait, you're not going to try and stop me?" Axel glanced around, "After what we all discovered"

"You've been wanting to leave ever since Vanessa left" Emma responded, "I'm tired of trying to convince you to stay"

"Uh-oh" Hannah let out, "Trouble in paradise"

"Shut up, Emma I'm going to need you with me to shut off the water valve before I go" Axel turned to her.

Axel glanced back over to Emma before walking over to where Doc was with the wounded man.

"Something I said?" Hannah asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, but I don't really care anymore" Emma sighed, "Clearly he cares about Vanessa more than a murderer on the loose"

"With luck, it might be him" Hannah shrugged, "Then we'll kill two birds with one stone"

Emma turned to her, "Hannah"

"I was just kidding" Hannah scoffed.

"Someone murdered Cynthia and you think it's a joke?" Emma asked.

"Of course not" Hannah got up, "But who else could it be since we never had that problem before"

Hannah moved and walked around Emma as she leaves the already crowded room. She turned and watched her sister leave with her arms folded over her chest. Emma walked to the center as Axel came out with Mohamad in tow. She scanned one last time at the group before she left with her fiancee and friend down to the water valve.

"You sure about this?" Mohamad asked.

Axel grunted as he turned the valve, "Drinking water only until we get heavy rain. No showers"

"It's gonna get ripe in here with all those people" Mohamad commented.

"Yeah, well, if they don't like it they're welcome to leave" Emma responded.

Mohamad scoffed, "You guys blame me for bringing them here, don't you? What did you expect her to do? Let them die?"

"If it meant her coming back" Axel grunted, "Yeah. What I don't know is what this place will look like when I do bring her back"

"Look, you don't even know where they're taking her-" Mohamad started.

"Hey, I got this" Axel said, "I got this. Why don't you go check the uh… reservoir on the roof? Ok?"

Mohamad was about to leave when Axel called out, "Kid! You steal the codes out of my notebook again, I'm gonna chuck you off that roof. You got me?"

"Yes, sir" Mohamad said dryly.

Emma watched as Mohamad mocked a military salute before turning around and leaving them behind. She turned to Axel as he continued to turn the wheel to shut off the valve.

"Why am I here?" Emma asked.

"To help me shut off the valve" Axel said.

"No, that was Mohamad with the light, I've been standing here doing nothing" Emma commented, "Why did you bring me down here?"

Axel sighed before turning to her, "Because I don't want you around those people. If I'm going to leave in a little bit… I just want to make sure that I have you protected in some way before I leave"

"The food's good for now, but our biggest problem is uh, the reservoir is almost bone dry" Mohamad reported back as the trio walked into the bunkers room, "But it should rain eventually. It is Seattle, right?"

Emma looked around and noticed that the mysterious group was now huddled in a corner. She furrowed her eyebrows as she caught the eyes of one teenager who stopped and then turned her back on Emma. The woman let out a huff before she turned and found her sister flipping through a magazine for the umptienth time. She barely even glanced up as Emma sat down in front of her.

"Why did you move bunkers?"

"Because Axel told me not to trust them" Hannah answered, "And their meeting was annoying me"

"Did you hear what they were saying?" Emma asked.

"Not really" Hannah glanced over to the group before she looked back down, "They were too low of voices. They kept glancing at me too in a weird way"

Emma looked to her sister, "How weird?"

"I don't know, like they didn't trust me" Hannah let out, "The feelings mutual"

"With luck, they'll leave" Emma whispered.

"Not too sure about that" Hannah hinted.

"What do you mean?" Emma asked.

Hannah looked to her like as if she hit her head, "This place is like a five-star hotel now, no one's leaving anytime soon"

Doc dropped her equipment on the floor and stood frozen, staring at her examination room. Emma and Hannah exchanged glances before they got up and walked over to the group that was already gathering. Emma gasped when she noticed the man who was seriously wounded was drenched in his own blood, even Hannah cupped her mouth and turned away.

"Axel!" Emma called out.

Axel came jogging over along with the other group in close tow. Emma slowly moved over to the entrance of the door as the leader pushed his way through.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked.

"He's dead" the Doc said as she turned to him.

"What happened?" he asked, "You told me-"

"He bled out" the Doc lied, "I'm- I'm sorry"

"He bled out?" Brendan asked, "How?"

Axel sighed, "We should get the body down the chute"

"Down the chute?" Brendan looked to Axel like as if he was a vamp.

"The garbage chute" Emma took a step forward.

"What?" he turned to her, "We're not doing that"

Emma remarked, "Then you go outside and dig a grave"

Axel turned to her before saying to Brendan, "It's how we dispose of our dead, it's nothing personal"

"It's hygenic" the Doc commented, "That's all"

"Okay, fine" Brendan sighed, "I'll take care of it. Is there anything else?"

Someone walked by Emma before she even comprehended that it was John as he marched to the sheets covering the body, "I think there is. You need to look at this"

John flipped the sheets off of the man's body to show Brendan who could only say, "What the?! Somebody say something!"

"One of ours was killed before you got here" John explained before anyone could say anything, "Whoever did it took a finger just like this"

Brendan turned to Axel, "You kept that from us? A murderer?"

Axel looked over to John before he explained, "I made a judgement call to avoid panic in an overpopulated, confined environment"

"I can control my people" Brendan said in a low voice, "Clearly you can't. His blood is on your hands"

Brendan marched out of the room, shoving Emma out of the way as Hannah turned and glared to John, "You prepared, asshole for the giant mess you just made?"

"They had the right to know" John said nonchalantly.

"Well, I know I didn't kill him" Nicole said lightly.

"We can all say that" Emma rolled her eyes.

Nicole turned to her, "Yeah, and one of us would be lying"

"It's obvious why he was killed' the Doc said, "He's the reason why they were staying. Dead, they leave. That shows motive but with Cynthia, that seems personal"

"Look, we gotta focus on what's right in front of us right now" Axel turned to the group, "This situation is going down the toilet fast"

Mohamad mumbled, "Now, what are they doing? What is John doing with them?"

"Son of a bitch" Axel fumed as he marched over to them.

"Axel" Emma called out but he didn't wait on her this time, "Axel! Wait!"

The situation happened fast and right how Emma predicted what was going on. Axel pushed through the group as two men quickly grabbed onto him as the teenager grabbed his gun and moved back, aiming it at him.

"You learn a thing or two in an apocalypse!" Catherine turned and aimed her gun at Emma who was the next closest one to the group, "Don't you dare move!"

"Emma!" Hannah called from behind her.

"Sorry, Axel" Catherine said innocently, "Hey, that rhymes with "asshole". I just realized that"

"Yeah?" Hannah said, "Why don't you make a fucking nursery book with that stupid ass brain of yours"

"Hannah" Emma warned.

The next thing she knew, everyone was put back into Doc's cage as John locked the gate. Emma looked at everyone who was staring at them, smug looks on their faces. She shook her head and started to pace, not knowing how she could be so stupid. If she wasn't so strung up on Axel obsessing over Vanessa than she would've seen the signs.

"I didn't want it to come to this" Brendan said, "This is only temporary until we find out who the real killer is. It's for your safety as much as ours. What's the point of having a refuge if it's no safer outside, right?"

"Oh, so you're protecting us now, that's it?" Axel remarked, "That's bullshit. You saw something good and you took it. I'll tell you what, you can have it. You give me my gear, you send me out the front door"

Brendan laughed and glanced around at his group.

"I can't do that" Brendan said.

"Sure, you can, why not?" Axel went on, "You got what you wanted. Put me out there, send me out the front door"

"We let you out, you sneak back in here two days later, kill us all in our sleep" John went up to the door.

Axel shouted, "Fuck you, John!"

"You did the right thing" John turned to Brendan, "It could be any one of them"

But two seconds later, John joined the group, "Come on, man, don't do this! Don't leave me in here"

Emma ran to him and slammed the man into the door and hit him repeatedly with her fists, "How could you, huh? How could you?!"

An arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her off of him as Axel said into her ear, "Woah, woah, easy, easy"

"Don't put this all on me!" John shouted, "I just told them what they deserved to know! That one of you is the killer"

"And who absolved you?" Hannah questioned.

"I know it wasn't me" John said, "Which makes it one of you"

Mohamad was the next to speak, "What you did out there, betraying us? You know that makes you look guilty as hell"

"Yeah, sure does" Nicole voiced in.

"Any one of us is capable of it, but only one of us took off right after Cynthia was killed" John turned to him.

"Me?" Mohamad blinked, "You think I killed them?"

"Yeah, why not?" John said, "No one else died until you got back!"

Emma and Hannah looked to each other as Mohamad said, "Are you serious?"

"He's right" Doc turned on him.

"Where were you when Roger was killed, huh?" John took a step forward.

"I was on the rooftop trying to check the reservoir just like Axel asked" Mohamad quickly explained.

"I can vouch for that" Axel nodded.

"I also heard Axel's orders so I was a witness to this" Emma voiced out.

"Anybody go with you?" John asked.

"I- I think we might be overlooking someone here" Nicole slowly said, eyes on Flesh, "He used to be one of those things, right? Christ, you came in here to kill us all whose to say you're not still carrying some residual psycho killer in you, huh?"

"Come on, is that even a thing" Hannah rolled her eyes.

"He has been struggling with the transition" Doc slowly said, "Sleepwalking, nightmares"

"Oh, come on! I wasn't even in the lab today" Flesh yelled out.

"Are you sure?" John asked.

"Or was I?" Flesh dazed out, "Maybe… No, that's not possible, that's not who I am. That's not who I am anymore. I'm not a killer! I know who I am!"

"Calm down" Axel gently said to him.

"Jesus, why is that, soldier boy?" John yelled, "Why do you care? You were about to ditch out on us!"

"You need to get out of my face right now!" Axel demanded.

John roughly pushed Axel which made Sam come in between them as John pushed Sam. Sam pushed him back as the man were about to fight, making Emma backup. Axel quickly got in the middle again and waved up his hands.

"Stop! Stop! Enough!" Axel said, "This is what they want. They want us to be fighting, they want us to yap about who did what to who, it doesn't matter! It's not our issue right now. We have to stick together until we get outta here


	5. Chapter 5

The group left for about 20 minutes before a couple of them came back to stand guard of the place. Cynthia was one of them, looking like she was the baddest girl in the world, staring everyone up and down. Hannah, being Hannah, didn't stand down as she walked up to the cage and mirrored her face but with something much darker hiding behind them. Emma sighed and pulled her back just as Branden came back to whisper to the other members of his team. She turned and looked to Axel as he came up to her side and stood next to her.

Axel spoke up, "Take it you're not here to let us out?"

"Actually I am" Brendan began, "Hear me out"

Axel exchanged a look with Emma as he responded, "I think we could hear a lot better outside this cage"

"Look, we spent a lot of time discussing what to do with you, and… we've come to an agreement" Brendan continued, "None of us are innocent. We all have blood on our hands. While one of you… killing for pleasure? We have no other choice but to exile all of you"

"Are you serious?"

"That's insane"

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"We'll die out there"

"Brendan, you can't do this" Axel disagreed.

"We can and we will" Brendan told him, "The decision been made"

"Ok, listen to me" Axel walked up to where he was standing, "I did it"

"Axel, don't-" Emma reached out and grabbed onto his hand.

"Send me out there" Axel said as he struggled, glancing to Emma before looking back to Branden, "I'm confessing to you, I'm the one, I did it. Send me out there, it was me"

When Branden didn't move, Axel moved the cage, "Come on, I did it"

"I don't believe you" Branden said in a low voice.

"I did" Mohamad's voice said from the back as Sam argued with his sign language to him, "Because I did, Sam. I killed those people"

Mohamad turned to Branden as Sam continued to sign to him, "When we left Vanessa outside I was pissed and I wanted you out of here so I thought if Rager was dead you'd be scared and have no reason to stay"

"And the girl, Cynthia?" Branden asked.

"She was weak" Mohamad told him, "We're only as strong as our weakest link, you said it yourself. None of us are innocent"

Branden leaned in, "You killed Roger?"

"Yeah, and after I took his finger as a souvenir" Mohamad continued.

"Look, kid, you don't have to do this" Axel disagreed.

"Fine" Branden said, "Put your hands in the air and move forward slowly"

"Take me" Sam turned to the gate, "I killer. I killer!"

"Sam!" Mohamad pulled him away from the gate, "Sam, Sam, Sam! Listen, I'll be ok. I'll see you soon. I promise"

"Friends" Sam said weakly.

"Yes, we are" Mohamad nodded, "But they need you"

Mohamad and Sam took a moment to touch foreheads as tears were visible in their eyes before Mohamad turned to Brendan, "Okay, I'm ready"

"Good" Branden said, "Move forward slowly, the rest of you back up"

When none of them moved, Branden aimed his gun at them, "Move back! Back up!"

Mohamad was moving out the cage when John said, "You're gonna get what's coming to you, kid"

Emma turned to Axel as she reached out for his hand again, "Axel, do something"

Axel squeezed her hand and shook her head as Mohamad said, "Don't worry about me, guys. I've survived out there before. I'll do it again"

The group left with Mohamad leading the way as Sam went up to the gate. Sam's cry made tears come to Emma's face as she started to sob. Axel wrapped an arm around her waist and cupped the back of her head before he kissed her on the side of the head. Emma reached out and gripped onto him as she shook her head.

"Wasn't him" Axel sighed, "I seen the eyes of a killer and it sure wasn't that kid"

Emma heard the underlying message, "It's not your fault"

"I saw the whole thing coming just got too fixated on…"

"On Vanessa" Emma finished.

"Doesn't matter now" Axel said.

Flesh spoke up from the corner, "Hindsight's anchor will drown us all eventually, these people will make sure of that"

"The hell you talking about?" John asked.

"This won't stop with Mohamad" Flesh said what everyone was thinking.

"He's right" Hannah sighed.

Nicole said from the floor, "If they were smart, they would send out Flesh next"

"I agree" John voiced out.

"Why me?" Flesh turned back around.

"Because you were the one who wanted to come in here and kill us all, like I said in the first place" Nicole said.

"And he was also the one who saved us from a vamp raid" Hannah turned, "Or was it you who opened the front door?"

"Why are you defending him?!" Nicole argued.

"Because he's proven to me that he's not like them anymore" Hannah said.

Nicole scoffed and looked to Emma as she shrugged, "Don't try to find help from me. Hannah can fight her battles on her own"

"So you agree with her?" Nicole asked.

Emma looked to Flesh who was staring at her, "Yeah, I do"

Nicole let out an annoyed sigh and shook her head as Flesh gave her a nod and mouthed out thank you. She returned it back and looked over to Sam who was still looking down the hallway. She let out a sigh and walked over to the deaf man and placed a hand on his back.

Sam turned and looked to her with tears in his eyes and sniffed. Emma couldn't really do anything but lean her head onto his arm.

"It'll be okay, Sam" Emma muttered.

"It should have been me" Axel muttered.

"At ease, soldier man" John sighed, "They're never gonna let us out of here, even with that death stare of yours"

Axel spoke louder, "I just let an innocent kid walk to his death because of you"

"Innocent?" John turned, "He confessed"

"He did it to save us" Axel told him.

"Jesus" John shook his head, "Don't be naive, the world's a war zone. There's casualties in war"

Axel commented, "Yeah, you mean like Wendy"

"Hey" Nicole let out, "What the hell?"

"Yeah, maybe so" John walked up to him, "All I know is there's two people out there who you want to save but can't. Now maybe you know what it feels like"

Doc chose this time to speak up, "If it wasn't Mohamad that means the killer is still among us, right here"

"So what do we do now?" Flesh asked.

"We get outta here" Axel said, "And we take it all back"

Brendan marched over to the cage, "Axel! Front and center. Seems you got a chance to prove yourself. Don't screw it up. The rest of you, get back"

Emma glanced up to Axel as she took a step back, Axel walked out with his head held high.

"This sucks" Hannah mumbled, "We need to do something"

"Like what?" John asked impatiently.

Emma quickly took a step up to the gate and held onto it. Her heart raced as she wondered if this was goodbye. They would've told them if they were about to exile him, right? Emma breathed out as she turned back around and looked to the group. They weren't as nearly as panicked as she was.

"He'll be alright" Doc said as she slowly came up to her.

"I know but look at the situation we're in" Emma glanced back, "Did you see how many people that left with him"

"I know" Doc nodded.

"I'm scared" Emma confessed.

"He can handle himself" Doc said.

"I meant about all of us"

"Oh… well, you wouldn't be the only one"

"What can we do?" Emma asked, "I feel so helpless"

"Our only chance is if Vaness comes back" Doc shrugged.

Emma leaned her head back, "She was very adamant of getting out in the first place"

"He talked about you a lot" Doc said, "Axel wouldn't let a day pass without mentioning you one way or another"

Emma looked to her, "Really?"

Doc scoffed, "I felt like I knew you before I even met you; Emma likes this, one time Emma did this, and let's not forget the day Emma saw this. He stared at your photo until he fell asleep"

"Hard to imagine" Emma mused.

"Even as a… one of those things" Doc cleared her throat, "I would see him talk to the picture, almost every night"

Emma felt her heart get light and flutter in her chest. She hadn't seen that side of him, Emma only saw how he was obsessed with Vanessa and keeping her safe. Hannah had mentioned the picture as well, she never seen it but giving the recent events, she wasn't surprised.

Shuffling feet were heard in the distance as Emma perked up and immediately backed up when Axel came into view. He wiped his mouth as they roughly pushed him back inside, making him grunt and wince in pain.

Emma stepped up to him, "What happened?"

"These bullies wanted my lunch money" Axel said sarcastically.

"Here" Emma gently touched his shirt, "Let me take a look"

Axel turned and looked to her as Emma slowly lifted up his shirt as even now she could see bruises forming on his stomach.

Axel huffed, "Taking you a lot longer to rip off my shirt now, huh?"

"Shut up" Emma responded.

"What?" Axel cracked a smile, "I'm in the Marines, I can take a punch"

Emma dropped his shirt as she said, "I forgot"

"Come on, let's talk to the group" Axel nodded to the other people in the small confinement with them.

"Sure" Emma nodded.

Axel immediately started forming a plan in less than five minutes as he was saying, "The only way this is gonna work is if one of us- gah! Son of a bitch!"

Emma looked down and noticed Axel was sliced with something sharp, "Oh, my god"

"Hey!" John yelled as she turned to see Catherine holding Mohamad's spear.

"How does that feel, you piece of shit!" she called out.

"Damn it!" Axel cursed as he grabbed onto his wound.

"You like my booby-trap?" Catherine taunted, "Huh? Do you?"

"Hey!" John shouted again.

"Do you like how it feels?" Catherine still waved it dangerously close to Axel's face, "Do you like how that feels?! Do you?!"

"Branden!" John shouted.

"Do you like that?!" Catherine turned her spear on everyone else, "Do you want some?!"

"Somebody help us!" Emma shouted.

Catherine continued to shout manically, "Do you like how that feels?!"

Flesh tried grabbing the spear but Catherine moved it back as Flesh groaned in pain, "Aargh!"

"I'm not done with you!" Catherine moved it back to Axel, "I'm going to destroy you!"

"Somebody help us now!" Emma shouted louder than the last time she screamed out.

"Enough! Stop!" Axel shouted as he grabbed the weapon, "Now"

Axel held onto the weapon as Catherine tried to pull back once again but wasn't any match for Axel's strength. She let out a crazy scream as Hannah took this time to go to the cage and started to bang on it repeatedly and loudly. Emma joined her sister and made it sound like a thunderous clap as Axel held on. Catherine continued to scream, making Axel turn to Hannah and Emma, nodding for them to get back. Emma reached out and brought her sister back behind her as Axel let go.

Tears were in Catherine's eyes as she said, "I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you!"

"Stop!" A voice yelled out from the side.

"You're dead!" Catherine hollered.

"Stop! Stop!" Branden grabbed the spear and turned to her, "I understand how you feel, I do. But this is not how we do things. Go cool off, now!"

When Catherine didn't move, Branden dropped his voice, "Now"

"Is that how you control your people?" Axel asked.

"I'm sorry, this is not the way we operate" Branden turned to the gate.

"Oh yeah, except for my little hallway beating" Axel said sarcastically.

"This won't happen again" Brendan said in a more authoritative tone.

"Oh, good, I feel so much better" Hannah snapped back.

"I promise you" Branden turned to her.

"I know it's not gonna happen again because if any of your people come at me like that again, I'm gonna kill 'em" Axel made his own promise, "You might wanna go tell them that"

Branden formed his jaw as he nodded for his men to follow, leaving the group alone as Doc walked up to Axel, "Here let me take a look at that"

"You eavesdropping with that thing?" John said, making Emma turn and see Sam had a mirror on him, "Is that what that is?"

"You always carry that around?" Nicole asked.

"Hey" Axel whispered as he got Sam's attention, "What're they saying?"

Emma walked over and tried to peer out of the cage but couldn't see them from her angle. Where Sam was, in the corner, was perfect for his advantage as he continued to look in the mirror. By now, everyone has gathered around to see if Sam could tell them what was going on outside. Sam closed the compact mirror as he deeply inhaled and exhaled.

"Come on" Emma urged, "Did you pick up on something?"

"They are going to execute us" Sam announced, "All of us"


	6. Chapter 6

"So anyone else think it's about time we get out of here?" Hannah asked.

"Damn, right" Axel voiced in.

"But how?" Doc looked around, "This cage held me in for six months when I was…. One of them. We're stuck in here for now"

"You were in here alone" Hannah nodded to everyone around her, "We're a group"

Flesh took a step closer, "She's right. I think I know what you're suggesting"

"Which is?"

"The vents"

Axel straightened up, "Holy shit. You're right"

"You honestly think they'll not notice one of us gone?" Nicole scoffed.

"They don't even patrol us or have someone stand guard" Emma pointed out.

"Exactly" Axel said, "We can get out of here before they even came around. Jackasses are probably eating all of our food by now"

"I'm going to need a boost" Flesh looked up.

Emma placed a hand on Sam's arm, "Can you help? Help Flesh"

They weren't even working on it for five minutes before they heard footsteps as Catherine came up with the keys, "Doc, we need you. Now, please"

Axel furrowed his eyebrows, "What're you guys trying to pull?"

Doc whispered, "Axel, I'll be fine. Stay with the others"

"Not going anywhere, anyways" Axel called out to them as they walked away.

Emma stepped up to the rails, "She'll be alright"

"Yeah, I know" Axel sighed, "But the last thing I want is to have someone get hurt like the way I did"

Emma nodded, "We need to get out of here fast"

"And then what?" Axel leaned his back to the gates, "They're a bigger group than us and have all of our weapons. It's going to take a freaking miracle to pull off this stunt"

"Don't do that now, Axel" Emma said, "We need you to be thinking clearly about this. _I need you_ to lead us. You're easily the leader of this group and people are looking to you to get us out of here. Okay?"

"Yeah, I hear you loud and clear" Axel gave her a side glance, "Boss lady"

Emma scoffed, "I told you not to call me that. Your nicknames were always so weird. Plus it's completely unappealing"

"Is it? In a time like this?" Axel fold his arms over his chest, "I sometimes missed you giving me orders. Actually I missed a lot of things. Late night movies, last minute dates, and all the fun stuff in between. You never realize how good you had it until-"

"You're stuck in an apocalypse?" Emma looked up to him, "Yeah, I know"

"I'm sure you do" Axel said nonchalantly.

"So you didn't look for me because you had your orders" Emma glanced down.

"No" Axel quickly objected.

Emma looked to him, "You said so yourself that you had orders. You never wanted to disobey those orders"

"That's only part of the truth" Axel sighed and glanced around at the group, "Nothing, let's drop it. Save it for another time"

"No, come on, Axel" Emma reached out and touched him, "Please, I need this. I've been wondering for three years and now I'm locked in a cage where a group is going to execute me any minute. I need to know now. Please, tell me"

At first, Axel didn't look like he was about to budge. He opened up his mouth but hesitated before looking back outside. He probably wanted a distraction or maybe even Doc to come walking back but no one came. Axel turned and looked to Emma who looked like she could burst into tears at any moment. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before turning back to her.

"I did want to go out and look for you" Axel said, "Several times"

"But you didn't" Emma said, "You stayed put. You made a fortress out of a hospital"

"I didn't want to go outside because I didn't want to know if you've become one of them" Axel quickly spat out, "Okay? That was my biggest fear of walking through those doors. I didn't want to see the woman I love be something I was forced to kill"

"So that's what it was" Emma sighed, "Fear"

"Yeah" Axel scoffed, "Turns out your Marine isn't as fearless afterall. You became my weakness"

"And that's a bad thing?" Emma asked.

"No" Axel shook his head, "No, it's not. Especially when it is you"

Emma closed the distance and wrapped her arms around him. Axel wasted no time and held onto her and buried his nose into her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut as she realized that this was the first time that they were holding each other. She didn't realize how badly she missed his touch.

"Okay!" Hannah said loudly, "I'm glad you guys are making up, I really am. But please don't start shedding off clothing now. At least wait until we're out of the cage and away from you guys"

The couple only turned and glared at Hannah when Flesh said, "Doc's coming back"

"What happened?" John asked once they were all alone.

"Vanessa's back" Doc announced, "She made it back somehow-"

"She's alive?" Hannah let out.

"Yes, but very injured" Doc informed, "Now listen, she has a plan. She says you need to try and get out. If you can catch Brendan off-guard then somehow secure the doors on both ends of the wing they can take out whoever is left on the other side"

"Who are "they"?" John asked.

"She- she brought in some woman, some Susan chick" Doc explained, "Anyway, she said "take out the generator"

Axel nodded, "She wants me to get them in the dark. Get them disoriented, get the advantage"

"I'm in" Hannah said, "I'll do the lights"

"You?" Axel turned to Hannah.

"It's better than facing a firing squad at dawn" Hanna said, "Why not me? You can't do both"

"Yeah, I can" Axel told her.

"Not at the same time" Emma turned to Axel, "You need to trust someone, Axel. Let one of us help you"

Axel looked to Hannah for a moment before he scoffed, "Fine. What else?"

"She said, um, she said something about building a rat trap?" Doc questioned.

"What does that mean?" Flesh asked.

"Meaning get them all jammed down one end of this joint, treat them like a bunch of goddamn vermin and then-"

"Then… what?" John asked looked at him expectedly.

"Gee whiz, John, I don't know, what do you think?" Axel said sarcastically.

"I think we're all gonna die" John answered, "That's what I think"

"You think they found their way?" Flesh asked once it's been five minutes since both Axel and Hannah left through the vents.

"I hope so" Emma breathed out.

The lights suddenly cut out, "Show time"

The alarm suddenly blared throughout the whole building as Emma looked up and only saw red lights flashing on and off. Down the hall, she heard gunfire as she jumped and tried to crane her neck to see what was going on. Emma couldn't help but grip onto the metal and pray that none of those bullets pierce Axel.

Her mind went to Hannah and wondered where she was hiding to stay put. She was smart, she wouldn't risk going into the rat trap when Axel was on a killing rampage.

"He's in here!" a woman yelled, "He's in here!"

"Shit!" Catherine screamed as she ran past the cage, "Oh, shit!"

Axel came into view and killed a man right in front of the cage as the man plopped down to the floor.

Through the red lights, she could see Axel glance up and look to the group still in the cage. She couldn't see his face, but she knew that he was looking straight at her. As if she knew what he was saying, Emma swallowed and nodded, giving him permission. Axel then turned and ran over to another group as screaming, both men and women, could be heard at the end of the hall. Emma only turned her back and closed her eyes as she knew that there was no other way around it.

When she opened them, she noticed the horror look on everyone's faces as they all backed up. She didn't understand why they were so afraid of Axel now. He was only trying to help them and make sure they wouldn't get killed. Still, the look on their faces bothered her.

Emma turned her backs to them, realizing she was the only one that was up against the gate now. She looked down as she noticed that the man Axel had just recently killed bloods was almost reaching her boot. The blood looked black in the light that was illuminating from the alarms overhead.

The gunfire stopped as Brendan was now talking to Axel, probably pleading with his life. Emma breathed out as she finally realized it was all over.

"He's the killer" Nicole could be heard behind her, "He has to be. No one could kill like that without feelings sorry"

"He did it so we don't have to die in here" Emma said tiredly.

"Keep telling yourself that" Nicole barked back, "I know a killer when I see one"

Emma turned and looked back to her, "Well, then, if you knew from the beginning then all of this would've ended with just Cynthia's death"

"Why do I have to explain myself to you" Nicole scoffed, "You're his fiancee"

"Exactly" Emma took a step toward her, "I know what this man is capable of and he would do what is necessary to stay alive. There was no threat to the two victims so therefore, it wasn't him"

"Alright guys, timeouts over" Axel announced his presence as he jingled the keys in his hands.

Doc sighed, "Thank, God! I'm getting sick of cages now"

"Well, let's hope that this is the last one you'll ever have to be in" Axel opened it, "Let's go"

"Damn" a voice said from the end of the hall, "What did I miss?"

Emma stopped and looked to her sister, "Hannah"

"Sorry, I couldn't wait for Axel" She motioned to two people she held at gunpoint, "What goes around, comes around, right?"

"Damn straight" Axel back up, "Get in the cage!"

"Axel, you don't have to do this" Brendan said slowly.

"Actually, I do" Axel turned to him, "Get your asses in the cage now!"

"No, no, no, no, no" John disagreed to Axel's plan.

"Yes, definitely" Hannah chimed in.

"We can't just… what're you saying?" Nicole asked.

"The obvious" Axel told her.

"Jesus" Flesh shook his head, "We might as well be them"

Emma spoke up, "He's not saying kill the rest of them, are you?"

Axel sighed and glanced over his shoulder.

Axel turned back to the group, "No, look… I just… we can't stay like this. In here, us and them"

"Okay" Flesh sighed, "Then what's the answer?"

"I don't know the answer, I just- I did what I had to do" Axel told them.

"You didn't have to, you chose to" Nicole said, "You just slaughtered their whole group"

Doc nodded, "Yeah, all those people"

"For you" Axel pointed to everyone, "And you, and you so all of you didn't have to die"

"Yeah, but-" Doc stopped.

"That's the way the world is now" Axel waved out his hands.

"Yeah, says you" Flesh commented.

"I'm sorry, was it a bad idea?" Axel asked.

"Obviously not" Flesh objected, "I'm… I'm just saying…"

"What?" Axel asked, darkly.

"These were people" Flesh motioned to the dead, "We killed people. Actual people"

Axel scoffed, "Actually, I killed those people. That was me. You didn't do shit"

"So what's the answer then?" Emma asked slowly.

"We know the answer' Axel turned to her.

"Is this how you handle everything?" John asked, "You're throwing them to the wolves"

Axel turned to John, "You just love to be the good guy when you're sitting over there with no dirt on your hands"

"So that's it then?" Doc asked.

Axel looked to the group, "We all agree? Like it or not"

Susan whispered, "Yep"

John sighed, "Yeah"

"Ok then" Axel said once everyone agreed, "End of discussion"


	7. Chapter 7

"Please don't do this" Brendan tried to reason, "I'm begging you here. Look, send me then. Send me but leave the rest of them, please"

Catherine started to tear up, "Look, you can't do this. You just can't, you're killing us. You realize that, right? You're basically sending us out there to die"

"You mean exactly what you were about to do to us?" Hannah asked.

Emma crossed her arms over her chest, "And what you already did to Mohamad"

Brendan objected, "This is- he was a murderer"

Sam spoke up, "Liar!"

"We never said we were gonna kill you!" Brendan turned to Sam.

"Liar" Sam said in a slower tone.

"We didn't" Brendan kept objecting, "Someone here is killing people and it wasn't any of us, it's one of you"

The group got quiet for a moment as Catherine took her chance, "Don't you hear what he's saying?"

"Grab your stuff" Axel said, "Let's go"

"Don't have more blood on your hands" Brendan shook his head, "Come on!"

"I can't go back out there" Catherine cried, "I can't!"

Brendan spoke up, "Just give us another chance"

Axel wiggled his rifle, "Let's move"

"Just be lucky we're sending you out now and not at dark" Hannah followed the group, "I wanted to send you out at midnight"

"It doesn't matter!" Catherine turned and looked to her, "Morning, midnight, during the brightest time of day here, feeders will come. They always do! Come on, you guys know that, right?"

Normally, Emma would feel a great swell of pity for Catherine and even try to reason with Axel. But not this time, not after what they did to them in their own home. Hannah must've thought she was going to object to this also as she could see her younger sister side glance her. Emma kept her head held high as the small group trudged down the stairs with their equipment. You can never trust anyone nowadays in the apocalypse.

"If you hadn't played us like you did, things would've been different" Emma decided to say to the group, "You guys thought you saw something good and wanted it for yourselves"

"Noon's your best shot" Axel said, "Now, get outside of the city, you might have a chance"

"Listen, man" Brendan tried one last time, "I'm begging you, don't do this. Let's work something out"

Axel stared at him for a moment before his eyes drifted over to Emma's and stayed there. At first, she didn't know why he was staring at her for so long but then realized that he was asking a question. With a simple shake, Emma replied with a _no._ Axel didn't even hesitate as he turned and typed in a code and opened the door.

Hannah stated, "We've already made up our minds"

"Okay, go now" Axel said once he cleared the area, "Go now"

"No, no, Callie!" Susan screamed out once the little girl snuck outside the door, "Callie!"

"You changed the code!" Susan said as she tried to type in a code, "What's the code? What's the fucking code?!"

"You can't open it again" Axel told her calmly, "It's too dangerous, I'm not doing it. Besides, she's with her people. She's where she wants to be"

"She's just a little girl" Susan sobbed.

Emma heard Susan's sobs as she glanced outside to the five members of the group cautiously walking away. Emma blinked harshly before turning back around and walking up the stairs, trying to fight back her own tears. Axel was right, they couldn't risk opening the doors once more.

A couple of hours later, Emma was sitting in Vanessa's room staring down at her unconscious body, hoping it won't be another three years until she wakes up again. Footsteps approached as Axel's camo pants came into her line of view.

"Hey, there, Ems" Axel greeted, "Where's the Doc?"

"She's in the cafeteria, eating" Emma informed, "I told her to go and eat or sleep before coming back to Vanessa"

"That's good" Axel glanced to her.

"As of right now, she's testing her blood in the centrifuge" Emma nodded to the machine, "As far as I'm understanding, she's like a mirror image. Doc is hoping to synthesize it, undo vampirism forever but it's a long shot"

"So you're starting to care again?" Axel jokes.

Emma scoffed and looked up to him, "It's a mystery, that's all. I mean, would we really want the world back the way it used to be? After everything we've been through?"

Axel looked to her in a peculiar way, "Yeah, you wouldn't?"

"Greed, ignorance, who's to say we wouldn't make all the same mistakes again?" Emma shrugged.

"So what, we just hang out here for as long as we can survive?" Axel asked, "That's it that's all we got?"

Emma sighed, "Maybe… maybe it's all pain, suffering and loneliness now"

"Emma, come on" Axel placed one hand on her shoulder and lifted her chin up with his finger to look at him in the eye, "We're gonna get out of this. You and me, I promise you"

"In your case, I hope you're right" Emma answered honestly.

Before Axel could tell her anything more, the lights started to flicker and die down as he cursed and turned to walk out the door.

Flesh could be heard running, "We got a problem!"

"What now?" Emma turned around tiredly.

"Julius is leading a contingent" Flesh informed.

"Well, ain't that fantastic" Axel left.

"And here I was thinking I can take a nap today" Emma said sarcastically, "Where's Doc?"

"Here, I'll stay with her" Doc entered the room.

"Everyone else is all hands on deck" Flesh ordered, "Julius is one of the worst"

"That's not comforting" Emma stopped and looked to him, "Do we still have a chance?"

"Hey!" Axel shouted out, "What's everybody standing around for? Grab your gear, it's game time"

Doc shouted out, "What is happening?"

"As far as I can tell, Julius is about to tear this place a new asshole" Axel informed in the most Axel way possible, "Come on! Let's go, move!"

Emma and Hannah were assigned with Nicole to try and attempt to barricade off the steel door. Unfortunately for them, the door was malfunctioning just like the rest of the building so even with all of her strength, it barely budged. A loud banging made Emma jump and turn to the noise as she realized that the vamps had gotten past the UV lights. She turned around and looked to her sister who was full on yanking the doors now just to get them to close. Emma walked over, reached out, and pulled her away from the doors and into the bunkers room.

"What the hell?!" Hannah said angrily.

"I need you to go into Vanessa's room and stay there" Emma instructed.

"What? No!" Hannah said, "I'm not playing babysitter"

"It's not about playing babysitter, Hannah!" Emma yelled out, "It's about you being safe, alright? I need you to stay with Vanessa in case the vamps reach this level"

"Why?" Hannah asked, "What are you planning on doing? You can't barricade by yourself"

"I'm not" Emma shook her head, "I'm going down there to help Axel and the boys on fighting them off"

Hannah's face dropped, "No, no, no! Emma, listen! You can't go down there! They're almost about ready to come in"

"Which is why I need to back them up, I can shoot a gun" Emma reminded her.

"Yeah, at one or two ferals but this is a whole army, we're talking about here" Hannah looked behind her, "You don't have to prove anything. Axel knows what you're capable of"

"It's not about proving to Axel" Emma objected, "It's about protecting you, now go!"

Hannah looked like she was about to say something more but rubbed her lips together and ran down the hall. Emma breathed out a sigh of relief that she didn't try to argue this time as she grabbed a rifle and ran down to the entrance. Flesh and John ran by and by the looks on their faces, things weren't going so well. She bounded down the stairs and locked her rifle into a ready position while giving Axel a glance as to tell him not to argue.

A sudden roar filled the bottom floor as a loud and final bang filled the room. Emma took a slight step back before she leaned back into line with Sam, Emma and Axel. She turned and looked to Axel as he gave her one last worried glance.

Susan breathed out, "Here they come"

"Yeah, they're gonna be coming up quick through this kill box" Axel advised, "Hit them in the head and heart in short controlled bursts, conserve your ammo"

Emma whispered, "This is it"

"This is it" Axel repeated.

A screech echoed down the stairs as a figure came running up to them. A mass quickly came after the first vamp as Emma didn't have enough time to realize what was going on.

Axel shouted, "Game on! Here they come!"

Together, Sam, Emma, Axel, and Susan all started to shout with rapid fire.

The more they shot, it appeared the more vamps who came around the corner as Axel shouted out, "Everybody pull back now! Go!"

Emma called out, "What are you doing?"

"Finishing this" Axel commented as he went to the side.

Emma wanted to stay and see what he was planning on doing but Susan pulled her back as they ran up the stairs. She only glanced back once and noticed that Axel was already leaping three at a time up the stairs to catch up to them. The group rounded the corner to Flesh's barricade as they pushed everything into the door. An explosion burst downstairs, flickering the lights as Emma turned and looked to Axel. He gave a sidenod as if to tell her, it was him who had done that.

Nicole came out from around the corner, "Did we do it?"

"Check the roof" Axel ordered everyone.

Emma turned to follow the others but Axel pulled her back, "Hey. How are you doing?"

Emma glanced around, "Are you seriously asking me that right now? I'm only surviving on pure adrenaline, I don't know what's next"

"It's going to be alright" Axel told her.

"I'm not convinced" Emma answered honestly.

"Hey, Emma… I lost you once" Axel whispered, "I'm not prepared to lose you again, alright? I'll die trying"

John asked once the couple emerged on the roof, "How long before you think they come back at us?"

"Julius will never give up, no matter how many warriors he has to sacrifice" Flesh said.

"Why?" Axel asked.

"Why do you think?" Flesh asked back.

Nicole asked, "She really means that much to him?"

"No, not to him" Flesh objected, "Dmitri and Rebecca. Julius knows they want Vanessa, it's a play"

"For leverage?" Hannah asked.

"Possibly" Flesh shrugged.

"For what?" Emma looked to him.

"Who knows what vampires plan" Flesh told them.

"Well, you're one of them" John turned to Flesh, darkly.

Axel said slowly, "So Dmitri, Julius, Rebecca, they're all what, they're all different?"

"Look… as far as I understand it, they're, uh, they're older… they're ancient" Flesh tried to explain, "They were around before all hell broke loose"

Nicole shook her head, "You sure know a lot about how they think, how they operate"

Flesh answered, "Well, it comes with the territory"

"Hey!" Sam shouted, making everyone jump.

Axel turned as everyone started to notice gunfire in the distance, "Those are M4s, AR-50s, that's military issue"

John responded, "Someone's giving someone hell"

Nicole voiced out, "That's gotta be the resistance. No one else has that many guns"

Axel pointed, "Those are soldiers, I promise you"

"One and the same" John commented.

"What's going on?" Susan ran out to join them.

"Firefights out here" Hannah informed.

"How's Vanessa?" John asked.

Susan turned to John, "She's doing better, Doc says you're a big reason why"

John seemed amused, "I just did what she told me to, but thanks"

Susan responded, "It's what saved her"

"Yeah well, I'd have done the same for any of these guys, I guess... mostly" John glanced to Flesh.

"Mohamad?" Sam spoke up as Emma turned and noticed a flare was being shot on the other side of the building.

Emma sighed, "Could be, could be anybody"

Susan pushed through, "It's a warning… there!"

"They don't look friendly" John commented as rows of slowly moving cloaked figures were making their way to the hospital.

"Oh, God" Flesh let out, "Dmitri's death squad… the elite. We're dead"


	8. Chapter 8

"Look!" Hanna pointed to Julius' group of vampires, "They're retreating"

Flesh answered for them, "Julius knows they can't win this fight"

Axel joked, "So it's a civil war of the vampires, huh?"

Flesh responded, "It's been heading this way for a while"

"We could use that" Axel said as he led the others back inside, "Get them killing each other, could buy us some time for a counterattack of our own"

John said, "We'd have to leave the building for that"

"What time do we leave?" Nicole asked.

Axel objected, "No, no, no, this is still the safest place we got by a long shot"

"You better be right" John told him.

"Guys?" Emma said as she peered over to edge, "You might want to see this"

Everyone peered over to see the death squad was already at the front door as one yelled out, "Bring the woman to me! You can stay or leave but decide now!"

Everyone exchanged glances as they all left in unison back down to the bunkers section in silence, contemplating their next move, Nicole was the only one who broke the silence, "So…"

"They get in, we're gonna die" Flesh pointed out.

"Not if I have anything to do with it" Axel said dismissively.

"You gonna call their bluff?" John asked.

Flesh spoke up, "I wouldn't mess with them, Axel"

Nicole said, "It's Vanessa they want"

"Seriously? Just like that?" Axel stopped and turned to her.

"I'm just saying what everyone's thinking" Nicole tried to reason.

"You don't speak for me" Flesh argued.

Susan called out, "You don't speak for me either!"

John turned to her, "We don't even know who you are"

"Listen, Vanessa's the only reason they haven't burnt this place to the ground" Flesh said.

"He's right" Axel agreed, "She's the only thing keeping us alive right now"

John shrugged it off, "Vanessa will be fine, they can't turn her and they're not likely to kill her if they came all this way"

Vanessa spoke up for the first time, "Maybe that's the answer. I'm toxic to them, what if we use my blood and dispersed it like a chemical weapon?"

"Could turn them human… they'd be easier to kill" John pointed out.

Emma turned and looked to him, "If they're human, why would we kill them?"

Axel nodded, "There's a point"

"Nuh-uh" Doc disagreed, "There's no way I could make it fast enough. Plus, I might need all of her blood to pull it off. No, there's no way"

"Good plan for another time, maybe" Axel said.

Vanessa said, "Then we need to start talking exit strategy, Axel"

Axel hesitated before he said, "Ask me again in an hour"

Emma opened her mouth to say something but Axel marched off, leaving the group speechless as Hannah said, "Guess that means end of discussion"

Emma decided for herself that Axel just needed to cool off and think of a new plan so while he did that, she went and started looking for more barricades. It wasn't long before Sam and Flesh joined her, making Emma grateful as some equipment she couldn't even move herself. She was rolling a cart over to the entrance when she nearly collided with Nicole who stopped and looked to her like as if she was a crazy person. She glanced over to Flesh and Sam who stopped working and were looking at her as well before she scoffed, shook her head, and left. Emma straightened up and watched her leave as Flesh came up to her.

Flesh asked, "What was that all about?"

Emma shook her head, "I don't know. Something's off about this. She usually at least tries to help out one way or another"

"Well, there's only one thing to it" Flesh motioned, "Let's ask her"

Emma followed him, "But she doesn't like you.. You think she'll tell us?"

Flesh sighed, "As of right now, I don't care anymore"

Flesh opened the door as Nicole and John stopped talking once they noticed she and Flesh walked in through the door, "Jesus Christ"

"What's going on?" Flesh asked.

"Those things come marching in here in five minutes, you both know Vanessa's the only one that gets out of here in one piece, right?" John explained.

Emma shook her head, "Where's Axel?"

"Having a breakdown somewhere" Nicole answered.

"There's no plan to get us out of here, he's freaking delusional" John chimed in.

Flesh argued, "Look, he spent the last three years turning this place into a fortress, you don't think he knows what he's doing?"

"No" Nicole and John answered together.

Nicole looked directly at Emma as she said, "Not anymore!"

"Nicole found him talking to himself like a crazy person!" John argued.

"Oh bull!" Emma waved off, "Everybody talks to themselves. I knew Axel before any of this happened and he used to mutter to himself while he worked on his truck, it's no big deal!"

Flesh turned to them, "When was this?"

Nicole answered, "10 minutes ago"

Flesh and Emma looked to each other before leaving, Nicole and John followed just as they nearly collided with Sam and Axel, Axel looked at the group before he asked, "What's going on?"

"Reality check" Nicole answered before anyone else, "If we're all going to die up here, we'd like to know. You still think we're going to make it through this alive?"

Axel answered honestly, "Most of us"

John said, "We need to come up with a plan, right now"

Axel responded, "Well, I got a truck parked downstairs, John. I just need to wait for the valet to bring it around"

"I'm fucking serious!" John screamed out.

A loud and ominous screaming was heard downstairs as that made Emma's blood run cold. She shivered and took a step back as John and Nicole's worry were starting to get to her. Emma breathed out and looked to Axel who seemed both tired and frustrated at the same time. She just hoped that her sister had still done as she asked and stayed near Vanessa while she recovered.

Nicole cursed, "Shit, they're in the escalators"

"It's too late now" John responded.

"Yeah, too late for what?!" Axel shouted, "To just hand Vanessa over to those things? And then what was gonna happen Johnny, in your little mind? They're just going to say hey, thanks guys! Go ahead! You know, have a nice day"

Nicole didn't buy it, "There's gotta be another way out of this death trap"

She turned and left as John called out to her, "Nicole!"

"Let her go, let her go!" Axel responded, "Anybody that wants to live, follow me. You think you got a better idea? You do whatever you want"

Axel turned and walked into the UV hall as Flesh said, "What, are we just gonna leave her here?"

No one responded as they all followed Axel, Emma brushed his arm as she asked, "What do we do now?"

"Well, they still have to make it through the UV lights and there's no way that's going to happen" Axel answered.

John asked, "And if they do, then what?"

Axel answered, honestly, "Well, then we say our prayers, there's only one play left in the playbook"

Emma opened the doors as she commanded, "Let's barricade these doors!"

"What are our chances, Axel?" John asked as Doc, Vanessa, Susan, and Hannah came over to the group.

"Axel, John asked you a question" Vanessa said weakly.

"I don't know!" Axel turned and shouted.

Emma stepped in, "Axel!"

Axel stopped and turned to her but didn't shout at Emma. He looked more tired than ever as she reached out, cupped his face, and brought his head down to hers. His breathing was labored but he slowly calmed down as he placed a hand on her hip, almost as if she was the only thing that was keeping the world from spinning.

Emma whispered, "Semper fi, remember? What does that mean?"

"Always faithful" he breathed out almost immediately, "Always faithful"

"That's right" Emma answered, "Stay faithful, stay calm, you can get us through this, alright?"

"Yes"

"Yes, what?" Emma asked, like she did in the old days.

Axel hesitated before he said, "Yes, ma'am"

Emma massaged his head for a couple of seconds before she moved her head away from his. Axel looked more calm and collected now as everyone stared at the couple, waiting for Axel's response.

"Better than even" Axel finally answered, "The lights will cook any vampire, we know that"

From down the hall, pounding could be heard as the doors on the other side were visibly moving.

"Here they come" Hannah said.

An elite came into the UV hallway and took off his hood and mask with a smile on his face, John said what was on everyone's mind, "What the hell?"

Axel cursed, "What the fuck?"

He took out a stick while locking eyes on everyone at the end of the hall. The elite turned and smashed the closest UV light and turned to the other. Emma turned and looked to Flesh who seemed just as dumbfounded as she was. If anyone was going to have answers about this, it would've been him. The sound of smashing glass made Emma turn back as he destroyed a third UV light.

"Wait… I know him" Vanessa said, "That's the guy who killed me"

Emma turned and looked to the man as he let the other vampires in, "Oh God, I must have turned him"

Axel cursed, "Oh, shit, he's human! Everybody go, now! Run! Back! Back!"

Emma took a step back before she felt a hand reach out and roughly pulled her back. She turned and noticed it was Hannah as she took off in a run. Emma glanced back as Axel was trying to fire at the vamps but was out of ammo. She turned back and held onto her sisters hand as they made their way over to the bunkers.

"Grab your stuff and get to the inner lab, now!" Axel commanded.

Flesh called out, "Axel, what about Nicole? I can go back for Nicole, Axel"

Axel responded with, "Oh really? What are you going to do, go back through there, through them?"

"We can't get out through here" Hannah said once they all came into the lab.

Doc mentioned, "I need to grab as many meds as I can. We won't find any other place like this for a while"

"Agreed" Emma nodded.

Axel announced, "It's time to abandon ship"

Susan called out, "Isn't it too late for that?"

"How the hell are we supposed to do that four floors up?" Hannah asked.

Axel turned to Sam, "Sam, you help Vanessa, follow me"

Axel led everyone to a fire escape and typed in a code as John said, "Really? This is it?"

"Really" Axel opened the door, "Go, go, go!"

"I knew there was a reason you were protecting this door" Emma told him.

Axel nodded, "One last surprise"

As the sisters bounded down the stairs, bright red lights blinked on and off as sirens wailed. Emma glanced up but continued down the stairs with her gear. She looked back when she noticed Hannah wasn't keeping in time with her but was relieved when Axel was staying by her side.

John asked, "Where does this go?"

"Down, it's just down" Axel told him, "Everybody grab a dish bag, let's go"

"Not him" John said as he aimed a gun at Flesh, "He stays"

Doc let out, "What?"

John answered, "I don't trust him, I never have"

Emma shook her head, "John, come on. You're gonna pull this shit, right now?"

"Ask your friend" John nodded to Susan, "She said he's close with Julius. Close to Julius, that's what she said"

"No, I said he was one of them" Susan corrected, "That's- that's all I said"

"Come on, this is ridiculous" Axel rolled his eyes.

"Everyone shut up, just shut up!" Hannah took a step up to him, "We're all so sure of ourselves, huh? Sure we have the answers? We don't know shit. If you're so goddamn sure about Flesh, then pull the goddamn trigger already, John. Enough bullshit! Quit talking about it and pull the trigger!"

John hesitated and looked to Flesh before he dropped the gun down as Hannah took it, "Good, I didn't think so. Now everyone else shut up about not trusting Flesh, listen to Axel and get down the stairs!"

Axel shouted, "You heard the lady, go come on! Move!"

Axel opened the door to a garage where a metaled out ambulance was sitting there waiting as Axel said, "This is Wanda. Come on, let's go!"

Emma climbed into the front as Axel got into the drivers side. He glanced at the crew as they climbed in before he floored it out of the garage.


	9. Chapter 9

Axel drove all night, well, nearly all night. The only time anyone talked was when Emma urged him to try and get some sleep, which he did… for about three hours. When Emma woke up, it was all trees around her and not that much blood or abandoned cars. It almost felt normal to her and wanted to forget about the horrors of Seattle. The only thing that seemed to haunt her was the sky covered in their neverending cloud of dust from the volcanic eruption.

When Axel stopped to get gas, Emma got out and stretched as Hannah said, "I thought back to when we used to drive everywhere. Dad would never let us rent or fly so we'd always be crammed in that goddamn car"

Emma scoffed, "You guys always wanted to put me in the middle because I was the middle sister"

Hannah rolled her eyes, "Then I always ended up being picked because I was the smallest and dad could see over my head. I hated whenever he would do that"

"And it was never just simple one hour drives" Emma shook her head.

Hannah sighed, "I wonder if they made it out. Mom, dad, and Olivia, I try not to think about it but it creeps in at night. I hoped that they found each other… we were just lucky to be working at the same place"

Emma shrugged, "Dad would've done everything he could to try and find all three of us. Mom was probably so worried sick that she couldn't think straight. Oh, mom, her poor heart. Probably took her medications until they were all past expired"

"I just hope that they're still alive" Hannah looked out to the road, "Vamp or not"

"Means that Vanessa can turn them back" Emma glanced over to Vanessa sitting on the ambulance, "I don't care what Nicole was saying back there, she's our last chance"

From her peripheral vision, Emma could see Hannah nod as she turned and glanced around the clearing. It was a habit that was hard to kill, always looking over their shoulder for a vamp just to come out and try to take them out. Being back in the open, made her heart quicken almost as if it never stopped. She almost felt tired feeling the presence of her heartbeat coming out of her chest.

Bell tolls could be heard in the distance as Flesh looked around, "What the hell is that?"

"How are they still running?" Hannah asked.

Susan turned to Axel, "They have to be something, they don't make that sound on their own, they just don't"

Axel asked, "Have you ever heard of wind?"

"Wind?!" Susan asked, "Really? Does it feel like there's a hurricane happening around here somewhere? A little wind isn't gonna push around church bells. It's impossible"

"Shh, listen. Listen" Flesh shushed.

Emma turned as she heard the bell tolls once again but other than that, she didn't know what Flesh was looking for. All she really wanted was to get back into the ambulance and drive once more. She didn't like being out in the open like this.

"Okay, so there's a church" Vanessa said, "And people are there, what good does that do us?"

"It's other people" Flesh said, "People we can contact with"

"Other people?" Axel said, "Like people laying a trap, our mission is to get to the base, not to wander around in the woods looking for God knows what"

"From who?!" John shouted, "Who gave you this mission?! I thought you were supposed to be taking care of the hospital. Now you're supposed to be taking care of these two-"

"I'm a marine, asshole" Axel stepped up to him, "I know what I'm supposed to do once we evacuated the hospital!"

John said, "You're making shit up as you go-"

Doc spoke up, "It got overrun, we almost died"

"Yeah, whatever" Axel retorted, "Okay, I need to get this woman to the base, this is my vehicle, that's what I'm gonna do"

"How do we know that the base is still there?" Flesh asked, "I mean, how do we know?"

Axel sighed, "Look, if we get there and there's no one then we can go chasing church bells. Okay? It'll be great"

"Fine" Flesh waved off, "It doesn't matter"

Sam walked over to Vanessa as he said in his best voice, "What do you think, Vanessa?"

Vanessa sighed and looked around at each and every one of them, probably taking them all in and wondering what they wanted. Emma crossed her arms over her chest and swayed as Vanessa pondered on their next move.

"I think we need to make a decision" Vanessa said, "What about a vote?"

"Well, if my vote means anything my sister used to work at the base as well" Doc said, "I'm pretty sure she's the one who sent you in to begin with"

Vanessa looked to her, "Wait, your sister sent the marines?"

Doc shrugged, "Something like that, as soon as I told her about you, yes. I say we go there, check it out"

Doc walked over to the ambulance and climbed in as John said, "I thought we were putting it to a vote?"

Hannah looked to Emma as they both scoffed and climbed back into the ambulance as well.

Axel could be heard chuckling, "End of discussion, I guess"

"This is it?" Emma asked once Axel pulled the car up.

"Yeah" Axel turned to her.

Emma stared at him for a while before she asked, "Now what?"

Axel announced, "Now we walk"

John was the first to answer, "Walk? Why the hell would we walk?"

"We've got no choice" Axel said, "Does it look like Wanda is gonna make it through that mess up there?"

"Why would we get out of the vehicle?" John asked, "We got perfectly good-"

"This isn't a military vehicle" Axel turned to him, "She's not gonna get through that shit out there. We gotta protect her for later. Come on, people, let's go"

Once everyone was outside, Axel turned to the group and said, "It's about a half mile walk to the base. Everybody stick close, watch each other's six"

Vanessa turned to Axel before she yelled, "Get down!"

Axel didn't have to turn as he dropped to the floor. Vanessa shot at a feral running up to the gates as fast as he could. The feral was only hit on the arm before an explosion sent the feral flying in a million pieces. The bomb shook Emma's feet as she gasped and tried to keep her bile in her throat. She's killed before but never have seen a body explode like that.

Hannah asked, "What the hell was that?"

"Land mines" Axel answered, "Must've been a last ditch effort to protect this place, we never had landmines around the perimeter before

On the other side, another explosion happened as Emma turned but couldn't see anything. The sound must've attracted more ferals to their position. Emma took out her gun and readied it as she turned to her sister. Hannah was only comfortable with knives but had hers up and ready for whatever was coming next.

"We need to move" Vanessa said.

"Copy that, better get to the base, hope for the best" Axel responded.

John called out, "We could have stayed inside the vehicle, hunkered down and waited like I said"

Axel called over his shoulder, "And then what?"

John only muttered to himself as Emma chose to not listen to him anymore. It was practically his mission now to go against what Axel usually says. It seemed that way also to everyone else as no one even bothered to chime into his conversation.

It was the longest half mile of a walk of Emma's life as it was filled with hearing distant bombs and praying none of the vamps were smart enough to walk around them. Axel opened up one building as they looked around and noticed that no one was in.

"Stay close, boys and girls" Axel said, "This is gonna have to be home tonight. How you doing, old girl? I missed you"

Emma scoffed as she turned and started to make up her own bed, wanting nothing more than to sleep, even if it meant being out in the open again.

"Hey" Emma turned and noticed Axel was giving her a pillow, "It's the best one I could find"

Emma nodded, "Thank you"

Axel stayed, "Need anything else?"

Emma shook her head, "No"

"There's not much in the way of food but I got one of those little fruit cocktail thingies" Axel cracked a smile, "It's got the cherries in it"

"No, it's okay" Emma smiled back, "I don't want to eat a whole can by myself"

Axel shrugged, "I'm just saying if you twisted my rubber arm, I might share with you, that's all"

Emma shook her head and told him, "Maybe later"

Axel rubbed his lips together and gave a shrug as he turned and walked to the center, "Alright, y'all. I got first watch"

Emma laid down and made herself comfortable as she closed her eyes, forcing them to rest as she knew her body needed it. A distant scream and explosion made her eyes open wide as she looked over to Axel who seemed to sense her as he turned and looked to her. They stared at each other for a couple of more seconds before she laid her head back down and closed her eyes, knowing she was safe. She knew that Axel wouldn't let anything happen to their group as another bomb went off in the distance. She had to keep hold to that and it was the only thing that mattered.

"Yeah, but there's no bodies up here" was the next thing she heard, "That we can see, anyway. No fires, nothin"

Flesh asked, "So what does that mean?"

John continued, "So there's nothing to suggest the place was overrun or whatever so what the hell happened to everybody?"

"What does it matter?" Hannah asked, "There's nobody here"

"I'm just sayin"

"Saying what? Say it"

"Nothing"

"Exactly"

Susan shrugged, "Maybe they'll be back"

Flesh looked to her, "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know, maybe they're off fighting somewhere and then they'll come back eventually" Susan shrugged.

"Surely they would leave somebody here if that were the case, right?" Doc questioned.

"Not necessarily" Susan disagreed.

Doc asked, "Well, why wouldn't they? With all this stuff here? Of course they would"

There was a moment of silence before Flesh said, "People died here, I can feel it"

"Oh, that's great" John straightened up, "Thanks, you win the creepy story of the morning award"

"Don't turn away, John" Flesh got up, "If you got something to say then why don't you say it to my face?"

John turned and looked to him as he said, "You're creepy"

Emma couldn't help it but let out a laugh as she straightened up on her bunker. Sam let out a ghastly laugh as Susan joined in. Flesh didn't know what to do with himself but just sat down humiliated. Emma shook her head as the door opened and Axel came walking in with his rifle.

"Hey, hey" Axel greeted.

John called out, "Where have you been?"

"Oh, you know, the few, the proud, the insomniacs" Axel said, "Checking the perimeter, seeing what's what"

"Anything?" Emma asked.

"Not yet, just did the outside tour though" Axel said, "Still got the buildings to take care of"

Vanessa took charge, "Alright, we should spread out and do it in pairs. It'll be faster that way"

"Yeah, alright" Axel agreed, "As long as you guys stick together, I'm still good doing my own thing"

"I guess we're paired up" Hannah said looking to Emma.

Emma nodded as she turned and grabbed her gun before they walked over to a building Axel pointed them to. Emma went in first as Hannah carried in at the tow. So far it looked like another bunker situation.

"Nothing looks out of place" Emma commented.

Hannah agreed, "John was right. Something doesn't feel right about this"

"They left on their own terms"

"With no sign of vamps even coming into this"

"I know" Emma glanced around, "That's what worries me. You don't think that they could've known before this, right?"

Hannah looked to her, "You mean, before the apocalypse"

"It's a long shot, I know" Emma said.

"But it sounds rational, with everything that's going on right now" Hannah said, "It's like they've only left for the day"

"And Axel's group got the worst of it" Emma mused.

"Yup, right into the heart of battle" Hannah agreed, "But you seem to be doing okay, never noticed how much Axel has trained you until now"

Emma cracked a smile, "You were surprised when I pulled the trigger"

"I always thought you were a pacifist" Hannah said, "Never thought that you would shoot someone so quickly. It was almost as if he was preparing you for this moment"

"Lucky me" Emma sighed, "Kept us alive for this long"

Hannah glanced around, "There's nothing here. Let's go onto the next one"

Emma nodded, "I don't know whether I'm disappointed or not that no one is here. Ever since Brendan's group, I kind of found myself doubting the humankind. Is that really what our world is coming to? Locking people up, cutting them, wanting to execute people"

"I know" Hannah agreed, "Doesn't seem right"

An explosion happened closer than ever before, making the sisters turn and glance to each other.

"Let's go back" Hannah suggested, "It's only a matter of time before they run out of mines to step on"


	10. Chapter 10

Emma and Hannah were just walking back to the building when they heard a high and shrill scream. The sisters looked to each other before running over to the sound, their weapons up and ready. It was the building that Susan and John went into, Axel was already running over and waved to them to stay outside as Vanessa ran past them. Emma stopped and looked to Hannah who sighed as Doc willingly stayed behind. She turned back and waited only a couple of seconds before a man emerged from the building, hands raised up in surrender.

Emma drew up her gun, "Who is that?"

"Don't know, let's ask him when we get to the treehouse" Axel commented.

Hannah narrowed her eyes, "He doesn't look too much of a threat"

"Thank you" the man said.

"Yeah, but we all thought that when the group came into our hospital, remember?" Axel commented.

"He's got a point" Doc mumbled.

"Listen, guys-" the man said.

"You will talk when we get to the base, understand?!" Axel roughly pushed the man, "Keep walking"

Vanessa turned to the sisters, "Did you guys find anything?"

"Nothing" Emma shook her head, "Everything was kept in place, no blood or even a piece of clothing on the floor"

Vaness made a face, "Weird… people would've been in a hurry but it's like it was-"

"Calculated" Hannah stepped in, "Yeah, we think so too"

Vanessa scanned the area as Flesh and Sam rushed up to the group, "Who's this guy?"

"We're about to ask him" Axel answered.

"What does Axel think about all of this?" Vanessa whispered, "Did you ever get his opinion?"

Emma scoffed, "He's never going to put a bad name on the Marines, he's loyal like that. If he doesn't know then he's going to say that there is a pretty good reason what happened happened"

"No, not Norman, Gorman" the man said.

Sam behind him slammed his bat down onto the metal table. Gorman jumped out of his skin as Sam walked nonchalantly behind him, sizing the man up. He looked up to them as if they were the intruders and this was his home. Emma watched the man as he looked just as scared with sitting down around them but he tried to go on.

"With a G"

Vanessa asked, "Is that your first name or your last name?"

"Uh, yeah, first" Gorman stuttered, "Uh… Jose is my last"

"Gorman Jones, tell us again what you're doing here" Axel asked.

Gorman started again, "Like I said before, I got separated with my group and, you know, we got in a fight with some of them mother suckers"

"Is that your name for vampires?" Hannah asked, impressed.

"Yeah" Gorman laughed, "Yeah, you know, some people look at me funny when I say it, but the shoe fit"

Axel cut in, "You can call them whatever you want, your group… who are they?"

"The resistance" Gorman said simply, "Part of it, anyhow"

"The resistance?" Axel questioned.

"Mmhmm"

"That's a real thing?" Axel asked, "That's not just a bunch of country boys running around in the woods with some guns playing soldier?"

"Nope" Gorman said, "Yeah, no, it's a real thing"

"Where's your group based?" Emma asked, "And do you know what happened here?"

Gorman sighed as he looked down to the floor. Emma and Axel looked to each other before glancing back and looking at the group not far off, listening intently. Emma turned back around as Gorman decided with himself on what he wanted to say.

Gorman said, "We got split up at night and during the shootin, lit up the night with those uh… tracer fire…"

"I'm pretty sure we saw that" Axel said.

"Mmhmm" Gorman continued, "Well, yeah, I got outta the woods and saw the buildings here, I wasn't sure about this place but I hid out here when I heard you guys comin"

Axel turned and walked back to the others as everyone but Sam followed suit, Vanessa was the first to address the group, "So what do you guys think?"

Doc called out, "He's another mouth to feed"

John joked, "He looks like a meat eater to me, I'm just sayin. Does he look like a vegan to you?"

"For once I agree with John" Axel said from the corner, "We barely have enough to go around"

Vanessa objected, "Yeah, well we can't send the guy away because he's hungry, okay? We're gonna have to deal with it"

Emma nodded as she agreed with Vanessa before an explosion was heard outside, making her jump. This one sounded the closest that it has ever been.

Hannah spoke up, "They're getting closer"

Axel said, "It sounded like it was inside the fences. Yeah, well, it's just a matter of time, they're attracted by the sound of the explosions"

"We need to prepare" Sam said, "Windows, doors-"

"No, no, no" Axel disagreed, "We're not doing that again. We're not, no more booby traps and that shit. We can't defend this place"

Vanessa asked, "Why not?"

"I used to live here" Axel explained, "Look around, we're on the ground floor, there's four entrances, there's a garage door, there's hundreds of windows"

Emma turned to him, "Then what do you suggest?"

"What about the church bells?" Susan asked.

John shrugged, "Hell yeah, why not?"

"It's worth a try" Susan voiced out.

"Sleep here tonight, go back to the vehicle in the morning, get the hell outta here" John took control.

"It doesn't matter" Flesh said, "They'll keep coming for us; Julius Dmitri, Rebecca. It's inevitable"

Axel commented, "Yeah, well at some point we might be able to bring the fight to them, but in the meantime-"

John but in, "It's all the more reason to find these other people and hook up with the resistance"

"Maybe it's time to split up" Vanessa spoke up, "If we all go different ways then they can't follow all of us"

"No! No, no" Axel stood up, "We're not splitting up. We stick together, we find some place that we can fortify, we hunker down, we ride this thing out"

Doc spoke up, "Says you, Axel"

"What was that, Doc?" Axel challenged, "You don't think these people look like they could use a rest?"

"I'm just saying maybe that's not what everybody wants right now" Doc tried to reason, "Maybe some of us have other ideas to what we wanna do with our lives right now"

"Such as?"

"I don't! I'm just saying!" Doc yelled out.

Axel scoffed, "Look, I'm just trying to keep you people safe, and that includes you, Doc, until we know where we're going or what we're doing, we can at least agree to hunker down someplace for a couple of days, yeah?"

Hannah asked, "Then what do you suggest? You have a bomb shelter in your backpocket?"

"Yeah" Axel said, "Maybe, I do"

Everyone drove in silence as Axel led the way to some unknown place, weapons up as they didn't know what to expect.

"Don't take everything out of the vehicle just yet until we scope this place out" Axel ordered, "Just the essentials"

John asked, "This is where we're supposed to hold up and stay safe for a few days?"

"Yes, sir"

"We're gonna need a bigger bunker for starters" John said.

"Very funny, asshole" Axel scoffed, "It's underground, they call this place the farm. I guess cause it's in the middle of the field. That's just the entrance"

"The farm?" Vanessa asked.

Emma glanced over to her sister, "You ready?"

"Yup" Hannah glanced to the small shed, "Hopefully this place is as big as Axel makes it sound. I was kidding when I said if he had a bomb shelter up his sleeve"

"You know, Axel, full of surprises"

"This is probably the first time you've seen this place" Hannah spoke up, "The base, now this. Secrets upon secrets"

Flesh said, "Looks like a mausoleum to me but I'll do what everyone decides"

Vanessa voiced, "I say we go"

John asked, "Why doesn't it feel safe in the basement to me, Axel? Why is that?"

"Son of a bitch!" Axel stumbled as he tried to open the door, "Probably because you're a dipshit that likes to spout off about things you don't know the first thing about!"

Gorman said, "Well, I think I got the door fixed"

Emma turned and noticed his bomb as she said, "Back up!"

"Woah!"

"Jesus!"

Everyone ran over to Wanda and hunched down. Hanna reached out to Emma's bag and knelt down as Axel wrapped his arm around her and practically pinned her to the vehicle. Emma waited for a moment for a while and then looked to Axel who seemed confused. Everyone straightened up up and glanced to the door as if it was a silent bomb. Gorman huffed in disappointment as he pulled from his jacket a grenade.

"I got a spare right here" he said as he threw it.

"Oh, come on" Emma knelt back down.

Just as she knelt down, a big explosion erupted from behind Wanda. The sound made a couple of the girls scream and jump. The dust was the next thing she breathed in as she strangled a cough came from her lungs as the ringing died down. They quickly walked down the the stairs to another set of doors.

"Emergency power's still up" Emma mused.

"Yeah, well this place doubles as a fallout shelter" Axel explained, "Clear"

"You mean like uh, tornadoes and uh, shit?" Gorman asked.

Axel laughed, "Yeah, like tornadoes and shit"

A loud thunderous sound came from up above as Emma glanced up before immediately running down the stairs. Axel didn't even wait for her to meet the bottom floor before wrapping his arm around her waist and throwing her into the hallway. Gorman quickly shut the door as Emma gasped and got a hold of her bearings.

"We're not getting back through that door" Gorman commented.

"Well, that's inconvenient" Axel said sarcastically.

Emma had to ask, "Why's that?"

"Cause this is the only way in or out of this place" Axel answered.

"Oh, Jesus"

"So much for a few days' rest"

"Like I said, mausoleum" Flesh responded.

Axel flipped him off as Gorman said, "What, you mean like, paintings and shit?"


	11. Chapter 11

Everyone huddled together as they moved as a group down the hall, Vanessa said, "Alright, everybody have a look around, see what you can find"

"Hey, you guys, get in here!" Flesh yelled out the second he, Emma, Hannah, and Sam figured out what they stumbled upon, "Guys!"

"Look at all this stuff" Hannah mused.

John came in and laughed as they took a look around at the cafeteria. Everything looked just recently stocked up; no foods left in empty spaces, all canned so nothing was spoiled, and the best part was that there was nearly everything Emma could imagine. She just shook her head in awe and ran a hand through her hair. She couldn't really believe that all this stuff was actually here. She turned and looked to Hannah who was already messing up the order of food just to get a better look at everything on display.

"Real food" Hannah let out, "Not just beans"

"What?"

"Holy crap, look at it all!" Emma squealed.

"Beer?!" Susan grabbed on and opened it.

"Oh, amazing!" Vanessa mused.

Susan quickly passed one to Emma as she raised one almost up to her lips but then looked to her sister. Hannah would've been 21 this year if they knew what month or day it was. She reached out and handed it to her sister. Hannah blinked and looked to her before Emma urged once more to the beer in her hand.

"Huh" Hannah grabbed it, "I always knew you were the cool sister"

Emma smirked and turned to Susan and motioned for two more. Seeing how they weren't going to run out of stock, she gladly gave her one. Emma scanned the room before leaving into the hallway to see Axel was at the end, peering into a window that said quarantine.

"Hey!"

Axel turned around, "Hey"

Emma wiggled a bottle up in the air, "I got beer"

"So I see" Axel slowly backed up from the door, "Looks like everyone forgot the word _ration_ "

Emma rolled her eyes, "Will you stop? We found the jackpot of lotteries in a place that _you_ suggested… I think you deserve a little bit of recognition"

Axel huffed, "I'll take a beer but I won't have my guard down"

"Axel" Emma took a step closer, "For once, can you drop the Marine act? Be the fiancee I fell in love with and enjoy my company-"

"I do enjoy your company"

"You've been worrying about one thing to the next" Emma put in, "Let go for tonight"

Axel glanced down to the beer and sighed before he looked to her brown eyes. He brought the warm beer to his lips and took a big swig as Emma smiled and drank her own.

"Alright, fine" Axel said, "But if you get my drunk, you're taking care of my hungover ass"

Emma let out a laugh, "Deal"

Axel stared at her for a moment longer, "It's been a while since I've heard that sound"

Emma nodded, "Well, for once, everything is fine in this apocalyptic world; I found my fiancee, my sister is still alive, and we have enough food to last us for a while"

"Which reminds me that I'm starving" Axel draped his arm around her, "Why don't we have a good chow down on whatever's there"

Emma wrapped her arm around his waist, "I like the sound of that"

The couple walked into the room as everyone was still having a good time as she and Axel sat down, "Alright, boys and girls! Let's get shitfaced!"

Susan let out a whoop as John actually cheered to what Axel was telling them.

"To the fallen" Axel raised up his beer, "We salute you"

"To the fallen" everyone said.

"To the fallen" John said, "And the living"

"That as well" Axel sat down next to Emma and draped his arm around her.

From behind them, Sam was heard singing in his accent, Emma felt sorry that she couldn't really understand what Sam was saying but that sorrow made her giggle. Axel turned and laughed with her as Flesh smiled and looked back to his friend. Hannah smiled and raised her beer up high as she did a moment ago to his singing. Emma shook her head and took another drink, loving the silence that the underground shelter gave for them. She craned her neck back so that way she could see Sam upside down as he continued to sing.

"Sing it, Sam" John encouraged.

"Whoo!"

"I'll, uh, take some of that stew if you're done with it there" Gorman said to Axel.

Axel got up and staggered over to the man, "It's all you, buddy"

"Thanks, pal"

Axel turned and pointed to Hannah, "Hey, aren't you a little bit too young to be drinking?!"

"Lay off, Axel" Hannah flipped off, "You were the one who gave me my first shot of whiskey. Remember?"

"What?!" Emma yelled out.

"No, no, don't believe that" Axel turned to Emma.

"Liar!" Hannah turned to Emma, "We stole from dad's best whiskey"

Emma looked between the two, "You mean the one he would whip out on special occasions?"

"The one on his right bottom desk drawer in his office"

"Axel!" Emma straightened up, "My dad let you in on that secret because he trusted you"

"What can I say? I was trying to sweeten up to my future sister-in-law" Axel said a little bit too loudly.

"She was a bitch back then" Emma admitted.

"Excuse me?!"

"Why couldn't you have brought her to her favorite band's concert or something?" Flesh asked Axel.

Hannah looked as if she was slapped in the face, "How old do you think I am?"

"15" Flesh shrugged.

Hannah gasped as Emma laughed, "Oh, shit!"

Hannah grabbed the nearest pillow she could find and threw it at Flesh, but since she was drinking, it only hit him weakly on the leg. Flesh, Axel, Hannah, and Emma let out a loud laugh as Doc cringed and left everyone to be alone. Axel leaned over the couch and touched his head onto Emma's very heavily. He then kissed her on the back of her head before circling around and sitting down next to her once again.

"So you both were a couple before this" Gorman said from the side.

"Yes, sir" Axel answered.

"How did you two meet?" Gorman asked.

"Ugh, God, here we go" Hannah exaggerated an eyeroll.

"My group of friends and I always wanted to write to our men in uniform so one friend wrote to the Army, one to the Navy, the other Air Force, which left me for the Marines" Emma turned and looked to him, "I was so excited to get my first letter but was shocked to know that Axel was kind of…"

"A fat lousy bitch to her" Hannah said.

"Hey!" Axel lifted up his arms.

"What?" Hannah let out, "You were… you were so sarcastic and awful to her"

Emma giggled and continued, "I didn't even want to write back but a week later, I actually ended up doing that and eventually his… snarkiness subsided and we met that Halloween"

"Wow… " Flesh said, "That almost made me vomit"

Emma laughed despite being joked at as Hannah leaned over and cheersed Flesh. She turned and looked to Axel who was rubbing his mouth with his thumb. He looked over with his piercing eyes before he gave her a little wink.

A scream suddenly echoed from the hall, perking everyone's attention. The sound suddenly sound muffled but the scream was still present.

"What was that?" Hannah asked.

"Shit" Axel cursed.

The group ran out to see Vanessa had a hold of John as Susan was up against the wall, "She kissed me, she was kissing me-"

"No, no, no-"

"Yes, you did too!" John shouted, "She kissed me!"

"We were just- I was- and then you wouldn't- you wouldn't let go of me!" Susan panicked as she couldn't form her words correctly.

"You wanted me to!" John shouted before turning to Vanessa, "Let go of me, bitch!"

Vanessa punched John making him fall to the floor, "Don't call me "bitch", bitch"

"He's going to come to any second" Emma said, "What are we gonna do?"

"I say casterisize him" Hannah chimed in, "He should learn to know when no means no"

Emma scoffed, "Be realistic"

"And that's a little bit extreme" Axel pointed out, "Let's just tie him up for starters"

"Agreed"

"I'll go get the duct tape" Flesh turned and ran off down the hall.

Vanessa turned and pet her friends hair, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah- Yeah- just a little bit shaken up" Susan nodded and looked down to John.

Doc slowly walked up to her, "Let me take a look at you, okay?"

"Okay" Susan agreed.

"Found it!" Flesh came running back,

Axel snatched the duct tape and started to wrap it around John's arms right when he was waking up.

"Hey, hey, hey!" John shouted, "What the hell?!"

"Just a precaution" Axel straightened up, "You know the drill"

"All because I tried to kiss her?!" John let out.

"No, all because you tried to rape her" Doc turned and spat in his direction.

"Oh, come on!" John shouted, "She wanted it just as badly as I did"

"No, that's not true" Susan argued.

"Some fair trial this will be" John let out, "All of you have at least hated me once since we've all been together"

"Some of us still do" Emma commented.

"Oh, Christ!"

"Now what are we supposed to do with him?" Axel asked.

"I don't know" Vanessa said, "I'd start with castration but seems only Hannah agrees with me"

"Come on, you gotta be kidding me" John said.

"Normally, we'd kick you out but the new guy blew out the front door" Axel pointed to Gorman.

John asked, "Kick me out for what? What did I do?"

"Sounds good to me"

"Oh, God!" Flesh let out, "Here we go again!"

"Again?" Gorman asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Just say out of this"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute" Doc called attention, "Look at her neck"

"What?"

"The marks on her neck"

"What are you talking about?" John asked.

Doc explained, "Roger, Cynthia, the way they were killed"

"What're you saying, Doc?" Axel asked.

"That he's the killer" Doc said.

"Are you crazy?" John asked.

"What the hell is going on here?" Gorman asked, "Seriously?"

"No, think about it people!" Doc said.

Axel turned to her, "I am thinking about it"

"He was always accusing everybody else" Doc explained, "It was always somebody else. Either me or Flesh-"

"And then Mohamad" Sam took a step forward.

"That's cause Mohamad's the one who was doing it!" John yelled out, "Stop this! Okay, stop it now"

Emma spoke up, "And you sided with Brendan! You tried to get all of us killed"

"No!" John shouted, "Jesus Christ! I was trying to kiss her! I was drunk!"

"Your hands were around her throat when I get there, John!" Vanessa said.

John continued, "Yeah, I was trying to stop her from screaming, that's all. That wasn't me trying to..."

"Trying to what?" Hannah asked.

"Kill her!" John said, "Trying to kill her! I don't want to kill anybody!"

"You tried to kill me a couple of times" Axel pointed out.

John looked him square in the eye and said, "That's different"

"How?" Emma asked, "How's that different, John?"

Axel turned to Sam and asked, "Want to get his bag?"

Axel dropped the bag down in front of John as he examined it before pulling out a knife, "Look here"

"You've seen that before, so what?" John questioned.

Axel said, "It's from the kitchen at the hospital, I recognize the handle"

"Yeah, there's a reason for that" John clarified, "I don't think I need to explain it"

"This is the same kind of blade that killed Roger" Doc said, "Serrated edge, slanted tip"

John cursed, "Bullshit! Look, I took that from the kitchen for protection! That's it!"

Axel took out a cloth and revealed a finger as John yelled, "What the hell?!"

"It looks like Cynthia's finger" Doc said.

Axel got up, "I think that pretty much settles it"

"Bullshit!" John shouted, "That's not mine!"

Flesh yelled out, "All this time it was you, John? All this time it was you?! You blame everybody else, you blamed Mohamad, you blamed me! Axel, think about this! Look at this guy!"

Everyone turned and was pulling Flesh away. Emma only turned slightly before she was roughly grabbed back and a glass smashed next to her. She let out a scream as Axel pushed through the crowd and aimed his gun at John just as she felt the tip of the sharp glass run across her skin. Hannah tried to run over to her but Susan held her back as John stepped them away from everyone. Axel had his gun aimed and ready but even he didn't look confident enough to take the shot.

"Drop the gun and I'll let her go!" John said, "Drop it! Don't make me do this!"

"Let her go!" Axel said in a voice that didn't sound like his own.

John ordered, "Drop the gun now!"

"Let her go!"

"Please, don't do this" Emma whispered.

"Shut up!"

"Look around, where are you gonna go?" Axel argued.

Something flashed by the side of her head as she could see in her peripheral view, the shape of a knife. Freaked out, Emma ran off and immediately held onto Axel. He wasted no time in wrapping his arms around her and pulling her off to the side. John collapsed to the floor as his body became lifeless.

Vanessa walked over and took out her knife before turning to everyone, "I hope to God we were right"


	12. Chapter 12

"Hey!" Axel called after her, "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine" Emma breathed out as she stopped walking and leaned on a table, "Just a little bit shaken up, is all"

"So I've noticed" Axel commented, "You got cut, you know that right?"

Emma picked up her hand, "Oh, I didn't really notice"

Axel sighed as he sat down and brushed away some of her hair to see her neck. For a small cut, it looks deep, he could even see it bothered her when she swallowed. He went over and took the first aid off of the wall and went back to her side. Axel took out the alcohol wipe, placed his hand on the back of her neck, and started to dab her wound. Emma flinched but still stayed in place as he continued to patch her up.

"I should've known it was John" Axel sighed.

"We all didn't know" Emma commented, "Plus, we were too busy on getting out of the hospital"

Axel shook his head, "Killing his wife must've blew a gasket out from inside of him"

"What would've happened… if the tables were turned?" Emma looked to Axel, "And it was me down there and you were on the rooftop"

Axel stopped as he looked back up to her face, "First of all, I never would've let you out of my sight, even for a second if I was in your group. You mean way too much to me, you're the only family I have left and- and you know that"

Emma hesitated to say something but Axel roughly threw down the wipes and got up as he paced around for a little bit. She remembered how he looked the second John had ripped her away from the group; he looked helpless. She got up and walked over to Axel and wrapped her arms around his waist, brought herself up and kissed the back of his neck. Emma rested her head on the center of his back as he didn't even move, taking in the warmth of how she felt.

"He's dead now, Axel" Emma said, "He won't kill anymore"

"I just wish I was the one who had done it" Axel breathed, "But he knew that I was the man who would've put him down… made sense how he went after you"

"Let's not talk about it" Emma straightened up, "I'm kind of tired… can you join me?"

Axel turned around and looked to her, "Of course, baby"

Emma deeply inhaled as she stretched before she heard, "Morning, sunshine"

"Morning" Emma opened her eyes to see Axel putting back on his pants, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to go help Flesh dispose of John's body" Axel commented.

"Where?" Emma asked, "We're underground and there's no way up"

Axel shrugged, "Maybe stick his ass in the freezer"

"Oh, well, that could work" Emma got up, "Do what you gotta do"

Axel smiled, "It's still kinda early, lie back down. I'll be back soon, I promise. We have no agenda whatsoever"

"That sounds nice" Emma smiled, "First time where we didn't have to check the perimeter or get to sleep in. Hurry back, okay? Bed's not warm without you"

"I'll be back" Axel leaned in and kissed her on the lips, making Emma suck in.

It felt almost as if there was a hunger that he awoke inside of her as she opened her eyes, "I've missed you so much"

"I missed you too, baby" Axel breathed out.

Emma traced the bottom of his lip, "I forgot how it felt to kiss you"

"Well… that's insulting" Axel commented.

Emma laughed, "Come on, you know what I mean. It's been a while"

"Three years is a while?" Axel said, "The most difficult three years of my life. Come on, back into bed"

"Alright" Emma sighed.

"I'll be right back and we can pick up where we left off" Axel said.

Emma giggled as she heard him quickly leave the room the sectioned off away from the other group. She glanced over her shoulder before settling down and getting comfortable, actually wanting to know what sleeping in would feel like. Her mind drifted off into sleep as she felt it was only a minute before she heard Axel come back into the room.

"Well, at least we now know where the deceased went" Axel said, "Flesh and I found some stuck up in the freezer about to do a dead body run. Looks like our little cuddle session will have to wait"

"Should I go with you?" Emma glanced over to him.

"No, no, I got this" Axel said.

Emma slowly got up, "I should get up anyways, sounds like everyone is starting to walk around"

Axel shrugged, "Do what you want, it's alright. I'm sure Hannah is still trying to sleep off her first hangover"

Emma groaned as she ran a hand through her hair as she completely forgot about her younger sister. The poor girl was probably moaning on the floor surrounded by her vomit.

"I should probably check to see how she is"

"Yeah, you do that"

"I feel like shit" Hannah moaned.

She leaned over slightly as Sam brought a pail to her mouth, waiting for it to be filled with more vomit.

Emma walked over and touched Sam's shoulder, "Thank you, I'll take it from here"

Sam moved a trashcan closer to the side, "I will clean this out!"

Emma nodded at the deaf man as he got up and walked away from Hannah. She turned and looked back down to her sister as she buried her head into her pillow. Emma shook her head and sat down on the bed and offered her a drink of water. Hesitantly, Hannah drank the water before she slumped back down. Emma placed the water bottle on the nightstand and leaned on the bed as Hannah tried to find some sort of comfort for her morning.

"I'm never going to drink… ever again" Hannah moaned.

"You should've limited yourself" Emma responded, "Everyone knows that"

"Shut up" Hannah cursed.

Emma couldn't help but smile at her sisters misfortune. It felt almost like karma to see her in this state of mind; always being a know-it-all just to suffer at her own hands. She heard a couple of pair of footsteps coming closer before she saw Sam and Axel making their way to them. Emma got up from the bed as she noticed the look on his face.

"What is it?"

Axel said, "There was a feeder… of some sort in the Quarantine area. I wanna check it out"

Emma figured that sense he was telling her, it meant she was supposed to come, "Alright, let me get my gun"

"Get better" Axel lightly kicked the bunker.

Hannah cursed again at the sudden movement as Emma left to go grab her weapon. She checked the mag just as she always does before doing something like this, grabbing a spare one as backup. Then she followed Axel down to the Quarantine area with Sam in tow to stand guard over the button.

"You ready?"

"Not really" Emma answered honestly as Sam opened the door, "But we'll find out"

Axel explained, "He was dragging a leg, must have got hit by a landmine. Looks like he was blind too, eyes were seared right out of his head"

"Huh?" Emma commented as Axel turned on the flashlight on his gun, "And why didn't you bring Vanessa down to investigate with you?"

Axel sighed, "She got mad because I didn't tell her I saw her file back at the base"

Emma glanced to him through the dark, "Care to elaborate?"

Axel swiped his gun off to the side, looking at every corner as they ventured further and further down the hallway. By him not immediately saying what was on the file suggested he wasn't ready to talk about it just yet.

"I can see why she got mad" Emma commented.

"I'm only trying to keep her safe" Axel turned and went to a closed door and silently pushed it open with his feet.

Emma sucked in a deep breath as she saw blood splattered everywhere, "Holy shit! What the hell is this place?"

Axel answered, "I don't know and I don't want to know"

"Blood trail looks like it's dried up" Axel said as he tried to find the drops again, "Must have healed. I say the hell with it, let's close up here. Button is only on one side of that door anyway"

Emma asked, "Are you sure it can't get back to the other side?"

"Baby, I'm not sure of nothing" Axel answered truthfully.

"We checked the hallway but didn't find it" Axel told the group.

Gorman said from the corner, "You said it was blinded?"

Axel nodded, "Yeah, eyes blasted out of its head, it's not changing but it's healed

"So it's pissed, it's in pain" Flesh said, "And it's somewhere in here ready to strike, that's great"

Axel continued, "We've got to flush it out one way or the other"

Susan said, "Not if those doors work or if there's some other way back in here"

"That's a big 'IF'" Emma replied back.

"Well, how did it get in here anyway?" Gorman asked, "Stairway collapsed"

"I don't know, could've been here for weeks…" Axel then looked around to everyone in the room before he asked, "Where's Doc?"

Gorman pointed, "Still shut up in her lab, working on that soldier, I guess"

"You left her there alone?!" Axel said.

Gorman commented, "I'm not the one that let a feral in here"

"Neither did I, dipshit!" Axel yelled back as everyone ran out the room.

Everyone ran out the door and made their way over to the lab, Emma in tow half carrying her sister.

"Doc!" Axel yelled as he pounded on the door, seeing her unconscious, "Doc!"

Axel's pounding stirred the woman awake, "Come on, I need you to open the door now! Come on!"

"Axel" Doc said weakly.

"You got to unlock the door, Doc"

Everyone crowded the windows as Axel kept pounding and pounding, making Doc slowly limp over to the door. Emma looked around inside the lab but couldn't see why Doc was unconscious, no one was in there to knock her out. Hannah let out a slight moan as she leaned her head on the glass. As much as Emma was worried about Hannah's hangover, Doc's unusual incident came first. Finally, Doc was able to open the door as Axel grabbed her from falling and sat her down.

"Whoa, whoa, what the hell is going on?" Axel demanded.

"It's radiation" Doc said breathlessly, "It's radiation! This whole place is contaminated"

"What?"

"These soldiers must've holed up in here when their base fell until the radiation got them" Doc explained.

Vanessa asked, "Axel, what is this place?"

"The guys called it The Farm" Axel said, "They said they did experiments here, that's all I know. I promise you"

"Yeah, if we don't get out of this place-"

"How are we going to do that? The front door caved in" Axel turned to Doc.

Vanessa suggested, "Maybe it's time to start digging"

"Are you kidding me?" Axel said, "We gotta be 50 feet down, at least"

"You got a better idea?" Vanessa challenged, "Maybe you can steal a pick-axe and a shovel from someone"

"What the hell was that all about?" Hannah mumbled as everyone but Emma, Hannah, Doc, and Axel stayed behind.

"Nothing" Axel turned to her, "Listen to me, you're sure about the-"

"Dead sure" Doc answered, "As in dead, we've gotta get out of this place right now or we'll all die soon"

Doc glanced over to Hannah before looking around and finding a bottle, "Here.. take this, you're probably having just as much radiation process as I am"

"Will it stop it?" Hannah asked weakly.

"No, but it'll slow the process" Doc handed a pill to Emma before the group left the room to find the others, "Everything and everyone in this place is contaminated, take these iodine tablets"

Flesh asked, "What caused it, Doc, do we know?"

"Isotopes maybe" Doc shrugged, "Radioactive particles used to alter DNA, something they were doing down here in this place called the Farm"

"More like a slaughterhouse, Axel and I found this room covered in blood. Didn't look like vampires, I think it was those tests he was talking about" Emma spoke up.

"Yeah, you wanna elaborate on that, Axel?" Vanessa cut in.

"I don't know anymore about this place than you do" Axel said.

"I wonder, you wanted to bring us down here pretty badly" Vanessa said.

"Because I thought it was safe"

"Right"

"Enough!" Emma yelled out, "That wasn't the point I was trying to make, if you have some sort of issue with him, wait for another time"

Axel changed the subject, "How much time do we have, Doc?"

"I don't know" Doc shrugged, "The iodine will keep us feeling better until we run out of it, but the Geiger counter reading 6 units. If it gets to 10 we'll die a slow and painful death whether we get out or not"

"Ha!" Susan let out, "God, you're always such a ray of sunshine, aren't you?"

Doc turned to her, "I'm just telling it as it is"

"Yeah, with such care and compassion, sometimes I wonder if you're not still just a little bit-"

"What? Say it!"

"You know" Susan commented, "Vampire"

"You are going to say that to me?!" Doc screamed out, "You!"

Susan screamed out, "Because you're so calm and collective telling us how we're all gonna die!"

"Screw you!"

"Take it down a notch" Axel said.

"I'll do what I want, thanks!" Susan argued.

"Like almost get yourself killed by screwing a murderer" Hannah taunted.

Susan turned her eyes on Hannah before Sam jumped to his feet, "Stop! Enough!"

"Sam's right" Vanessa said, "We're all just sick and bitchy, so let's not…"

Axel looked to her, "You don't seem sick at all"

"What do you mean?" Vanessa asked.

"Radiation is not affecting you?" Axel questioned.

"You know something, don't you?" Vanessa turned back to him.

"It's just an observation"

"Axel! Tell me what you know!" Vanessa yelled out.

Axel responded, "I don't know shit"

"Maybe you're the next step in this whole evolutionary mess; part us, part them" Flesh gave his theory, "Able to survive whatever this dying planet throws at you"


	13. Chapter 13

As the minutes ticked on by, Emma started to feel worse. She started to have a headache despite having already taken the pills. Half of the group had gone around trying to find some sort of new way out of this while the others were already saying their prayers. She didn't know which one to do as of this moment but worry started to sink in. If they get out; they'll die and if they stay in here, they'll die.

"At least I'm with you" Hannah said from the end of the couch.

Emma turned and gave a weak smile, "Me too, sis"

"Sorry for being such a bitch all the time" Hannah continued, "Even after the world had gone to shit"

Emma shook her head, "Don't worry about that right now"

"But we might not get another chance" Hannah let out.

Emma looked to her sister as she fought back tears, blinking and staring at the ceiling. The look on her face suddenly made Emma feel helpless as well before she even knew she was crying. She deeply inhaled as she really wanted to drink water but Doc warned not to eat or drink anything from this bunker anymore. Instead, she just closed her eyes and tried to will her body to not be affected by the radiation as much.

Emma nodded, "I never took it so personally… you were always a bit of a pain in the ass"

Hannah huffed out a laugh, "Yeah? You always were the better sister. Trying to help out as much as you can with mom and dad-"

"You were busy with school, it's not like you didn't have any time" Emma but in.

"I know but… I wish there was more I could apologize for" Hannah sighed.

"You're already forgiven" Emma looked to her, "There's no need to apologize"

Hannah moved from the other side of the couch over to her and wrapped her arms around her big sister. Emma sighed as she hugged her back, running a hand through her hair. She looked over to her hand and stifled a gasp as a chunk of Hannah's hair was still wrapped in her fingers.

"You should find Axel" Hannah straightened up, "Maybe he thought of something"

"Yeah, sure" Emma quickly said, "Stay here, okay?"

"Not going anywhere" Hannah said, nonchalantly.

Emma immediately left with Hannah's hair blurring in her vision as she sniffed and quickly snuck into a room. She let out a sob and yanked her hair out of her hands and pressed against the wall, a hand pressed on her back as Emma jumped and turned.

"Jesus Christ!" Emma let out, "Axel! What the hell are you doing?"

"Why are you crying?" Axel asked.

"Hannah's getting worse" Emma said.

"We all are, it's radiation"

"I was just hugging her and got a huge clump of hair out of her head" Emma let out.

"What?" Axel said breathlessly.

"I don't know if it's because she's the youngest but I can see it" Emma sniffed, "She's declining faster and hasn't moved from the couch. Even if we get out of here, she won't- she will die. She's going to die and she knows it. I'm going to lose my baby sister. Oh, my God, she's going to die! _Axel!_ What am I going to do? She's all I've got from my family"

"Hey, stop it" Axel rubbed Emma's arms.

"She's all I've got from my family" Emma repeated

"Stop this" Axel said gently.

"What am I going to do?" Emma asked.

Axel told her, "Hannah's a lot stronger than you give her credit for"

"But Doc said-"

"Doc said it would be a slow and painful death" Axel reminded her, "Right now, she's relaxing on the couch. She's in no shape or form, in any kind of pain. We still have time to get her out of here. To get all of us out of here. I promise you, I will get us out of here and we'll continue being a family as much as we can. Then after all this is over, we'll invite all of these crazy sons of bitches to our wedding and you'll finally get the happy ending you deserve. Alright? Your sisters going to be there, Flesh, and even Sam can be the singer if it makes you happy"

"Why are you talking about our wedding right now?" Emma asked.

Axel said, "Because it's what you would've done for me"

He then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the lips.

"I love you, Axel" Emma whispered, "I know I haven't said it a lot since we found each other. I love you so much"

Axel closed his eyes and brought his nose into the crook of her neck, sniffing in her scent into his lungs. Emma wrapped her arms around him tighter as it almost felt like one of his last days before going off to be a Marine on duty again. That day, Emma was sad but no tears were escaping her eyes this time, it was a life or death moment. A moment where they don't know what will happen within the next hour or the next day. All Emma wanted right now was to hold Axel in her arms and never let go.

Susan's voice broke the hold they had on each other, "Have you guys seen Gorman? He didn't take his iodine"

"No, I haven't seen the guy since last time I was in here" Axel said.

"Yeah, me neither"

Sam suddenly marched over to a table and knocked it away from the corner as Axel said, "Jesus Christ, Sam. What the hell?"

"Holy shit!" Axel said breathlessly as he looked into the vent and realized that it went up.

"Well, at least we know how that thing got in here" Susan said.

Axel commented, "More than that, I think we just got our lives back"

Susan let out a giddy laugh before turning back to Emma. She couldn't help but laugh as well before her next thought went to her sister. Emma bounced off of her feet and immediately went over to the couchs where her sister was sleeping against one. She quickly patted her boot, stirring Hannah roughly awake.

"What?" she let out.

"Get up" Emma said, "We're getting out"

"What?" Flesh asked as he walked over to them.

"Sam found a way out" Emma explained, "A ladder going directly up"

Emma smiled to her sister, "We live to die another day"

She quickly turned, despite feeling her stomach moving in slow motion as she quickly walked over to the bunkers. Her bag was already propped up and ready to go as she strapped it back on, for once, loving and missing the weight of her bag. Emma grabbed her sisters stuff before she ran out and caught up to her in the hallway.

"I don't think I can do ladders" Hannah said.

"Yes, you can" Emma said sternly, "You can if you want to live"

Hannah nodded, "Can you promise me that I'll feel better up there?"

"Better up there than down here" Emma commented.

"Yeah… I'd prefer killing the thing that's killing me" Hannah said.

As much as she didn't like the way she put her wording, Emma urged her sister down the hall. Word sent like wildfire as everyone had grabbed their gear in a matter of minutes.

"I help!" Sam said next to the sisters.

"Thanks, buddy" Hannah leaned onto Sam.

"I owe you one, Sam" Emma nodded in appreciation.

"No" Sam disagreed, "We family"

"Damn straight" Hannah said.

Emma pressed her hand on her sister's back before turning and seeing Axel coming with his stuff.

"Everyone's here" Emma looked around, "Except Gorman"

"Last time I saw him, he was in the kitchen same as you guys" Susan said.

"He could be dying in here somewhere" Vanessa chipped in.

"Or already dead"

"We can't stay much longer, the radiation is climbing" Doc said.

"We're going now!" Axel urged, "Come on, let's go!"

Doc said, Go ahead… but not me, there's something I gotta do"

"What?" Axel asked.

"I've left one too many people behind I can't do that again, I'm gonna take another quick look for Gorman" Doc said.

"I'll go with you" Axel turned to Emma, "Go with your sister"

"What about you?" Emma asked.

Axel nodded, "I'll be right behind you. I promise you, remember what we talked about"

"Axel, hurry up!" Doc called from the end of the hall.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Axel asked her.

"Absolutely"

"Just hurry"

"Emma" Sam called from the otherside.

Emma brought her lips to Axel's before she said, "I'll see you up there"

Emma turned and ran down the hall and nodded, "Let's go"

"Took you long enough" Hannah commented.

Sam went first before Hannah crawled in after him. She watched as Sam went up a few rung of ladders before wrapping his arm under Hannah's as some form of safety net. Together, they went slowly up the ladder with Emma close behind. Her eyes were always up, watching her sister, waiting for her to slip and fall. She didn't even know how long they were in the tunnel for but it felt close to forever before she even saw the first glimpse of a first light.

"We got company!" Susan shouted.

Emma's body lurched as she heard gunfire as Hannah crawled outside. Now she was in protective mode, practically pushing Sam out just to stand on her feet next to Hannah. Her sister was still struggling to stand up as Emma turned and fired at the ferals running after them. She could only quickly wound one before turning to another to stop them from running.

"Sam! Look out!" Emma yelled out.

Sam swung his bat to a feral as it knocked down next to his feet. He kept pounding at the being as Hannah got up and used the last of her strength to get to Wanda. Emma kept a close watch before her sister disappeared inside of the vehicle.

Emma ran to the ambulance and climbed in before checking on her sister. Hannah looked as if she had run a marathon but was smiling. Emma patted her leg before leaning out of the car to see if the others need any help.

"Shit! There's ferals everywhere!"

"They'll make it" Hannah said, "They have to"

"The more bullets we waste on them the more they keep coming" Emma aimed her gun.

"Don't!" Hannah let out, "You shoot at them from here, they'll start attacked the ambulance"

Emma dropped her gun down, "You're right"

Flesh and Susan started to run to the ambulance as Sam and Vanessa stayed behind to fight a few of the ferals off. Emma moved to the side as Flesh climbed in next to her as Susan went to the front.

"You okay?" Flesh asked Hannah.

Hannah smiled, "I'll live for now"

"Come on, come on, come on!" Susan kept repeating, "We need to leave now!"

"What's taking them so long?" Flesh asked.

"I don't know" Emma answered for him.

Emma watched as Doc emerged from the hole and was talking to Vanessa, she kept trying to go to the hole but Doc pushed her away.

"Where's Axel?" Flesh asked.

Susan hesitated before she muttered, "Oh, my God"

"Where is he?" Emma asked as the pair ran to the ambulance, "Why are they leaving him? Where's Axel?"

"What?!" Hannah said from the floor.

"They're leaving Axel!" Emma screamed out, "Don't start the car"

But against her wishes, Susan started the car as Doc climbed into the front seat as Sam and Vanessa went to the back. Emma turned and tried to dodge herself out of the ambulance but Vanessa stopped her. She wretched her hands away but more pair of arms came down on her, forcing her to sit down. Emma shook her head and turned to Susan as she pleaded for her to stop Wanda. Susan refused to listen but that didn't stop the tears from falling down the woman's face.

"We're leaving him!" Emma screamed out, "Why are we leaving him?!"

"Emma, he didn't make it" Vanessa said sadly, "Gorman killed him… I'm sorry"

"No, no, no!" Emma screamed, "That's not possible! You're lying!"

"I really wish I was" Vanessa whispered, "But there's nothing we can do"

"Yes, there is!" Emma let out, "Go back! Go back now!"

But no one listened to her as she finally stopped fighting and slumped onto the back of the ambulance. She let out a screaming sob and covered her mouth as a hole ate away at her chest. Hannah broke through the crowd and hugged onto her sister, crying as well. She couldn't tell if Hannah was squeezing her tight but everything around her became numb.

Sam leaned in, "I am sorry, Emma"

"Me too" Flesh said, "He was a brave man… died one too"

"He was a hero, Ems" Hannah sniffed as she pet her hair, "Hold onto that"

"He can't be gone" Emma shook her head.

"I'm sorry"

Emma's mind came to the first time she saw Axel was outside of a unique new restaurant that had just opened in her town. The way his eyes slightly lit up as he recognized her from a photo she sent with her last letter. The awkward way how they leaned in to kiss or hug, whichever one they didn't know what to do first.

"It doesn't matter" Emma sniffed, "Saying how much of a good man he was isn't going to bring him back. No matter how hard you try"

"But it matters to us" Vanessa said, "We want you to know that"

Emma sighed as she said, "I had a wedding date with him… wish we could've seen that fulfilled"


	14. Soundtrack

_**Sunshine- Skylar Grey**_

 _ **Crazy in Love- Sofia Karlberg**_

 _ **A Thousand Years- Christina Perri**_

 _ **Battle Scars- Guy Sebastian & Lupe Fiasco**_

 _ **Coming Home- Diddy**_

 _ **Love the Way you Lie (Part 2)- Rihanna**_

 _ **Young and Beautiful- Lana Del Rey**_

 _ **Where'd You Go- Fort Minor**_

 _ **Pulse- Skylar Grey**_

 _ **I Hate U, I Love U- Gnash**_

 _ **I Need a Doctor- Dr. Dre**_

 _ **Arms- Christina Perri**_

 _ **Love the Way You Lie- Eminem**_

 _ **Apologize- OneRepublic**_

 _ **Wanna hear the music?**_ _Go to and type in Animal Urges, you will not only see this playlist but also all the other playlists for my completed stories!_ _ **Thank you for reading!**_


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